Vancouver awarded 2020 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships

6 October 2017

The Canadian city of Vancouver has been awarded the 2020 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships. This will be the first time that these Championships are held on the American continent, and the third time they move outside Europe after South Africa in 2012 and Australia in 2016.

Vancouver, organisers of the 2010 Winter Olympics, will host the time trial, team relay and start of the road race. The finish of the road race will be in Whistler, a beautiful ski resort 120km north of Vancouver.

The event has been organised since 2010 under the name Granfondo Whistler and is the biggest Granfondo on the American continent. V

ancouver will also host a qualifier event in 2019, that will include an additional time trial.

The road race starts in downtown Stanley Park before taking riders across the Lion Gate Bridge and onto the Sea-to-Sky Highway towards Whistler. This breath-taking route past sea and mountains is also challenging, with 1900m (6200 ft) of elevation over a distance of 122km.

Next year, the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships will take place in Varese (ITA), and for 2019 they have been awarded to Poznan (POL).