The city of Grande Prairie will play host to a stage of next year’s Tour of Alberta.
The world’s best cyclists will be returning to the province for the third time next summer for a the six day race.
Organizing Board Chair Brian Jolly says Grande Prairie is the first host community announced, which means the rest of the route will be influenced by that.
“It’s all about connecting the dots, so we have to get the communities first and then we sit down and look at what roads are available to race on that are safe, and what agreement we can get with the communities to ensure that it’s a safe route.”
Last year’s tour saw more that 41 million people world wide tuning into the cycling event.
Jolly says Grande Prairie will benefit quite a lot from the exposure and reputation the Tour of Alberta has earned.
“We are a very top tier event under the UCI rankings, we’re a 2.1 event, which is the second from the top. A lot of the riders that came here last year were just absolutely amazed at what it did for them. I think we’ve done very well in Alberta, with what we’ve done in the past, and I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t climb up the ladder in the future.”
This year’s race will be held in South-Central Alberta from September 2-7.