The first event on the calendar is the UCI Granfondo Casablanca with start and finish next to the beaches of one of the most brilliant Moroccan cities on 21-23 February for some flat and fast racing to get in good shape early in the season.
Next on the calendar is Bathurst Cycling Classic with a new 100km course with Mount Panorama right after the start, but the rest of the course is pretty flat and fast so sprinters can grab their chance here.
Cyprus Granfondo and Tour de Bintan are the ideal locations to combine your vacation with high level amateur racing on holiday islands with events covering the full weekend. Cyprus on hilly roads while Bintan is undulating with some minor hills.
Tour de Brisbane is the third Australian qualifier event in the series with start and finish in downtown Brisbane and will be held for the second time in 2020.
New to the calendar is Around Samcheok, the first Korean event in the series with a 15km time trial and a tough 140km Granfondo with two climbs or the shorter 79km distance with one climb.
La Bourgogne Cyclo at the end of April is a typical French “Cyclosportive” on undulating roads in a beautiful region in between the vineyards.
Turkey will also have their qualifier event in the tourist city of Canakkala, famous for the Troyan horse. UCI Granfondo Troy might still switch date to the first weekend of May (to be confirmed).
Mid May is the start of a series of classic events in the UCI Gran Fondo World Series with the Schleck Granfondo on beautiful undulating roads in Luxemburg, Cheaha Challenge Granfondo towards the highest point of Alabama for a long century ride, Greek Granfondo who relocates this year to the Macedonia region for the first qualifier on the Greek mainland, UCI San Luis Potosi for some Mexican racing on cobbles and hills, Tour of Cambridgeshire for the biggest event on the calendar on fast roads and Maraton Franja for the oldest Granfondo in the serie. In between also a few new or nearly new events like Granfondo Rio De Janeiro who took place for the first time in 2019 with a longer course in 2020 and an additional shorter distance.
Granfondo Moscow is also known as the Garden Ring Race on Moscow’s famous ring around the Red Square and the Kremlin. Riders can expect a 18km time trial and a 78 or 109km road race in different laps on totally traffic free roads in downtown Moscow.
Coast to coast Granfondo Costa Rica is a two days stage race with the first stage counting as official qualifier in this new event in Central America. The start is at sea level with some tough climbing towards the finish. Granfondo Banja Luka is the ideal event to test the Worlds courses for 2021. In 2020 with only a Granfondo as a time trial qualifier will only be added in 2021. The 87km mediofondo has one long rolling climb while the 135km Granfondo has three climbs but those are not as hard as the one in the mediofondo according to the organizers. Niseko Classic moves from July to June to avoid the busy Olympic period in Japan. The time trial which has been added last year will again take place while the Granfondo/Mediofondo distance has been extended slightly to respectively 150 and 85 kilometers.
Gran Fondo Dnipro Race will be the first Ukrainian qualifier event with a 20km time trial on Saturday and a 155km Granfondo or 85km Mediofondo on Sunday.
Also Gran Fondo Suisse is a new event in Villars near the UCI headquarters. The mountain time trial on Friday is only 11km short but steep with 832m of elevation. The 108km Granfondo on Sunday is a tough one with 2600m of elevation as riders have to go over Col du Pillon, Col des Mosses and twice over Col de la Croix for a finish on top.
A second Canadian qualifier takes place early July in Victoriaville. La Classique des Appalaches has a 39km long time trial on Thursday while the Granfondo over 156km on Saturday also has 16km of gravel roads. A shorter 115km Mediofondo will serve as qualifier for the older age groups.
Granfondo Ezaro in the famous Spanish Galician region takes riders over several hills before approaching the steepest finish line in the series with a final 1.7km with parts up to 30%.
Utah Gran Fondo is the former Cache Gran Fondo which takes riders over undulating roads towards Idaho for a 76miles Granfondo in the beautiful Cache valley. There will also be a 10 miles time trial the day before. The last chance to qualify is in the Classic Italian Granfondo in Trento. La Leggendaria Charly Gaul is often considered as the most beautiful time trial course but also one of the toughest finishes in the Granfondo on top of Monte Bondone.
All these events lead riders to the first UCI Gran Fondo World Championships on the American continent. Vancouver and Whistler (CAN) will hosts these World Championships with a time trial on Thursday and an upgoing 122km Granfondo towards the ski-village of Whistler to finish this hard race.
