With one in 74 Squamish residents tied to the GranFondo road cycling race, organizers need to give back to the community, an elected official says.
Sept. 6 marks the fifth edition of a race that sees approximately 7,000 cyclists pedal their way from Vancouver to Whistler. Every year, approximately 150 Squamish residents are among the riders who zip up the Sea to Sky Highway and 80 people volunteer for the event, the race’s operations manager Brianna Waldman said.
“We definitely see major support in Squamish,” she told District of Squamish’s council at Committee of the Whole on May 13.
This year race organizers and the race’s major sponsor, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), are considering spinning a youth cycling program out of the event, Waldman said. Proponents have also applied to host the Union Cycliste Internationale’s 2016 World Masters Championship. If it wins the right to host the 2016 event, the 2015 race would provide a practice run for the approximately 1,500 international riders leading up to the big event, Waldman said.
While the race brings cyclists to the area, Coun. Susan Chapelle said she wants some assurance initiatives, such as the youth program, won’t bypass Squamish on route to Whistler.
The race raises money for the RBC Blue Water Project, which hands out grants to projects around North America that protect and preserve water in towns and cities. Locally, most of the money goes to Whistler and Vancouver, Chapelle said.
“It is really critical that the GranFondo make an effort to put money into Squamish,” she said.
Coun. Patricia Heintzman said this year she hopes to see smoother traffic plans to ease the flow vehicles as the race cuts through town. In the past, traffic to and from Garibaldi Highlands and Valleycliffe has been disrupted by the race from 8 a.m. to noon.
Organizers are working on those details currently, Waldman said. The goal is to be efficient, she noted.
