Hundreds of cyclists will be converging on North Bay and area on the Civic Long Weekend.
Cycle North Bay is a series of road and mountain bike events taking place from Saturday, July 30 through Monday, August 1.
Greg Rawson, President of Performance Driven Events, says the list includes the 2022 Provincial Criterium Championship, racing through a section of downtown, including the corner of McIntyre and Wyld.
“There’s going to be a group of 40 cyclists racing around this corner at 40 km/h and it’s absolutely exhilarating,” he says. “It is truly something spectacular and the reason why we host the event in downtown cores is to raise awareness of the sport.”
Other events include a youth hill climb in the College Drive area, para and mountain bike events and the 2022 Provincial Road Championship in East Ferris.
A week-long Ontario Cycling Para-Cycling high-performance camp is also scheduled.
Rawson says North Bay has everything they need to host the event.
“When I’m running events across the province, it’s finding that sweet spot of infrastructure, but also coupled with the willingness to host the event,” he says. “With the hotels that we’re going to need in order to house the people coming from out of town but also the willingness from Tourism North Bay to work with us on this and the support from the mayor on the road closures and all the different aspects of the event that are happening on that weekend.”
Larry Tougas, Sport Tourism Coordinator with Tourism North Bay, says they don’t have exact figures yet, but the series of events are expected to benefit the city economically.
“If you look at 500 racers that could potentially come with families and there are youth and para (events) you could be looking at close to a million dollars,” he says. “That’s gas, hotels and restaurants.”
Pointing to the success that hosting major curling events has brought, Tougas says this is a new type of event for the city and they will continue to branch out into new areas.
For more information visit cyclenorthbay.com
