April 24/04 12:07 pm - High Park Classic Returns to Toronto

Posted by Editoress on 04/24/04
 

High Park Classic
Courtesy Dave Butler

The City of Toronto, McBride's Cycles and Jet Fuel Coffee are happy to announce that the High Park Classic is back on May 30th.

This year's event will be part of Bicycle Week in Toronto. We're hoping to grow the event in future years so its one of the focal points of Bike Week in Toronto. Hopefully our event will help other Ontario cities develop a Bike Week event so we have a "Bikeweek Superweek".

For the first year we have worked with the various "stakeholders" and other community groups who use the park and we developed a racing schedule that meets everyone needs. Because of other activities in the park we have a limited amount of time to hold the events.

We'll have three events this year. An open licensed event (open to all licensed Vets, Cat III and Juniors), a women events and a Mens I/II event. All the events will be timed races with additional laps. The days schedule will be;

8:45am Womens (50minutes-two laps) 10:00am Open race (50-minutes-two laps) 11:00am Mens I/II (60 minutes-three laps)

The race will be using a new race course. Its been described as "challenging" by past Canadian National Champion Andrew Randell. The MAP provides more detail. The climb up Colborne Lodge hill be tough and the single lane roadway will add a European feel to the event but watch out for the canal!

Because of the course design we will limit the number of entries in each race to 60 riders. Entries per team may also be limited depending on overall rider numbers. Entries will be done online. Registration will open in early May so people have the opportunity to preview the course before they sign up. Note that when you preview the course you will be riding against the traffic in one area.

McBrides Cycle is providing the race with several thousands dollars in prizes. Each category will be racing for prizes at least five deep with major prizes from Opus, GT and Norco.

Your entry fee will include a light lunch at Grenadier Restaurant. This year the entry fee will be $25 but in the future we are working towards a $0.00 entry fee. Obviously a successful event will attract more sponsorship that will help the race organization achieve that goal.

Please contact David Butler cyclepromo@sympatico.ca with any questions.