April 3/20 11:15 am - Tour de Gatineau / Chrono Gatineau Postponed

Posted by Editoress on 04/3/20
 

Organizers of the Tour de Gatineau and Chrono Gatineau have released a statement postponing the events:

In light of Cycling Canada's recent recommendation that all events on the national calendar occurring until June 14th be postponed or canceled, organizers of the Tour de Gatineau & Chrono féminin de la Gatineau have made the decision to postpone the 2020 edition of the event until further notice.

Our organization is committed to working closely with our municipal, provincial and federal partners to monitor the situation and determine the best possible date for re-scheduling the 2020 event. Public Health remains our number one priority, and as such all decisions regarding the re-scheduling of the event will fall within guidelines outlined by public health officials.

We would like to thank all of our supporters who have stood behind us during this difficult time, and remain optimistic that our event will once again unite some of the World's top female cyclists in the wake of this global pandemic.

John Large, head of the organizing committee, also shared with us some further information:

Officially, we are not cancelling the race. We are postponing the 2020 event.
• We want to keep the 2020 race alive on paper to get ourselves officially recognised by the city of Gatineau at a City Council meeting later in April. This will help us for next year and potentially access funds for work we could do for a 2021 event.
• A date has been picked of August 20/21
• That said, an International event requires international riders. Nobody is coming into Canada without a quarantine for the foreseeable future.
• We have had discussions with Cycling Canada to run some sort of event later in the year to showcase the new route. Everything is up in the air but Cycling Canada may be eager to run a National level event to salvage a 2020 season and we have expressed our openness to work with them if something could develop.
• On the positive side, we have shown that there is keen interest in the community to NOT have this International Women's race leave the region and through this we have found a keen and committed organising group interested to make this happen when we get the chance.
• We have also connected with US race organisers who are spearheading an initiative to align 4 or 5 spring races that would build a complementary calendar that could attract riders to be in the North East over a 2-3 week period in June 2021 and beyond. Gatineau would be a centre piece of this.