Tour of Alberta to bring prestigious biking event to Strathmore

Times Reporter    

 

The Tour of Alberta organizing committee is underway, but they still need more volunteers and board members to help make sure the event is every bit the success hoped for. 

“As a start community our festival is going to be very centered around the athletes because when they come into town it’s a big to-do for them to start their race,” said Tracy Simpson Communications and Events Officer for the Town. 

There will be a row, or a parking lot space designated where the trailers can be set up and the racers can get ready, which will be open to the public. 

All athletes will have to sign in for the race, which will become a big to-do in itself. The athletes will get up on stage and sign their name, and then when they come down the stage they will walk down what is called autograph alley. 

“Our festival is going to be downtown, we’re still sorting out some of the details, but we are hoping it can be down in Kinsmen Park, that general kind of area,” said Simpson. 

Simpson said there will be a big stage set up at the starting gate and the road will be blocked from vehicle traffic. She is hoping to have a pancake breakfast and maybe some demos and interaction with the athletes, and maybe have a few contests to help the community interact with the athletes up on stage. 

“We’re still in the beginning stages but we’re really excited, we’ve got lots of ideas and we’ve got a lot of potential for that morning festival and then take it into an afternoon more community event. The majority of people will leave and follow the race to Drumheller,” said Simpson. 

The Alberta Peloton Association, who is behind the event, are predicting that lots of people will leave Strathmore once the riders leave around 11 a.m. The plan is to have the festival to go into the afternoon and evening to keep the fun going. 

“We are talking about maybe doing a fundraiser evening adult only event at the Station where we could kind of build off the day’s festival into a fundraiser for pathways or parks or something that’s focused around recreation in the community,” said Simpson. 

“Right now what we’re doing is we’re putting together our committee. So we need about eight people who are willing to step up into big roles, we need eight directors who are willing to put a fair amount of time into planning it. Some roles are bigger than others, and we have some filled ready and some not.”

The Tour of Alberta has been a dream for a group of people in Alberta for the past 10 to 12 years. The group was able to put an organization together, which is the Alberta Peloton Association (APA) and since creating the association they have begun really focusing on bringing their dream to life in Alberta, and how it will look. 

The Alberta Rural Development Fund put in $3.5 million in seed money to the APA to see the initial year of this dream come true. Medalist Sports was hired to be the race’s technical director. The company, which is based in the States, said they wanted to come up and drive around Alberta and determine what routes would work. Around Christmas the town got the word that Strathmore had been chosen as a start community. 

“They wanted to highlight the Badlands and they picked Strathmore to Drumheller. We didn’t really do much to get it, but we’re very excited,” said Simpson. 

“We really want the community to rally together and we want to showcase the best that Strathmore has to offer.  We want people to be willing to help out that way and make Strathmore look good.”

Directors sitting on the committee will be required to put in about 10 to 15 hours per month. They also must be able to meet during the day. Once a month the race directors will be coming up to make sure everything is on track, and the meetings will likely be held during the day. Some jobs will be more than others, sponsorship will be busy trying to get the money but once that is done it may lighten up for them and then get busy for different legs of the committee. 

Anyone interested in volunteering on the day of, or in being on the Tour of Alberta organizing committee can contact Tracy Simpson by email at TracyS@strathmore.ca, or by calling 403-934-3133.