In 2017, raging wildfires, backcountry closures and persistent hot, dry and smoky weather all resulted in the cancellation of the sold-out Kootenay Rockies Gran Fondo. This year, with clear skies and a recently rescinded evacuation alert around the City of Kimberley, the race has got the green light.
The event, featuring the Gran Fondo, Medio Fondo, and the short Piccolo Fondo route lengths, will set out from St. Eugene Saturday morning. The race is sold out again this year, with around 500 participants coming from all over western Canada and the northwestern U.S.
The Fondo is the main fundraising project of the Cranbrook Sunrise Rotary Club, explains one of their members, Frank Vanden Broek, who is acting co-chair of the race in the absence of Glenn Dobie. The race utilizes nearly 150 volunteers and partners with numerous other service clubs including the Kimberley and Cranbrook Rotary Clubs, The Kimberley and Wasa Lions, the Rains to Trails Society and Western Financial.
“All of those groups help us run aid stations. We’ve also got Crime Stoppers and Speed Watch — they bring out volunteers and help with traffic control,” Vanden Broek said. “So we really have got tons of people involved, lots of local groups and it’s a real community effort.”
With last year’s cancellation, and the fact that the wildfire season this year actually surpassed last year’s, including huge fires in the region that caused evacuation alerts in and around Kimberley, the organizing committee had a lot on their mind.
“We’ve had lots of stuff that we’ve been thinking about,” said Vanden Broek. “Like if we had to cancel it again, two years in a row, that might force us to look at changing the time of the year we run the event and different things like that.”
He said they were relieved to see the alert rescinded and the skies clear up the week of the race, saying that the RCMP presence they usually have on hand for safety’s sake, wasn’t fully committed until the very last minute, freeing up some more personnel.
“It’s great not just for us but all the people involved,” he said. “It made it difficult for us in some instances to recruit volunteers and get cooperation from other agencies, because obviously that’s their priority, not a bicycle ride. So we’ve been dealing with that.”
Vanden Broek also added that motorists and other pedestrians and cyclists out from Cranbrook, Kimberley, Wasa, to Fort Steele, the Bow River Trout Hatchery and back into town again, ought to be mindful of the race. Slow down, give the riders some room and look out for traffic control people that will be in place as well.
Riders depart from St. Eugene at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Results of the race to follow.