Key Points:

• New Race Route
• Weekly posts starting now
• COVID Protocol almost set
• Registration opening soon

Now that it’s the beginning of October we’re going to start some regular, weekly posts. We’ll copy what we can to our Facebook and Twitter accounts but remember that the greatest amount of detail can always be found on our main site at actifepi.ca.

We’re hopefully just days away from getting a lot of new info up on the site but the biggest thing to announce today is a new tentative race route!…and by tentative we mean there may be a few tweaks but what you see below is more or less how it will end up.

The biggest change is more of a looped route within Winnipeg compared with the out and back route we had last year. This year we’ll start from the Forks along the same route as last year for the first bit but then diverge and take the Seine River south to exit the city.

The shortest distance (approx 60km this year for cyclists and runners) will bring participants through the Fraser Road CheckPoint (a shack just north of the Floodway) at the midpoint, after which they continue on the race loop and connect with the same course used last year that takes them through the U of M and eventually along the Red River, returning to the Forks.

The mid-distance (110km or so) cyclists and runners head south after reaching the Fraser Road CheckPoint the same way the short distance athletes travelled then continuing south to Niverville before turning around and retracing their steps / pedal strokes north until they hit the floodway, then connecting with last year’s course north through the U of M and along the Red River to the Forks Finish Line.

The longest distance (200km) cyclists will follow the mid-distance course down to Niverville and back north to the Floodway but at St Norbert will head west along the La Salle River and do an out and back along the river to add the extra distance before reconnecting with last year’s route north after passing back through St Norbert, also finishing at The Forks.

We’re excited about offering both the Seine River (for every participant) and the La Salle River (for the longest distance cyclists) as additional features to this year’s race. Both rivers are huge highlights for local athletes and demonstrate some of the great winter routes we have in and near Winnipeg.

Please note that there will almost certainly be minor tweaks to this route as we finish scouting, firm up details with CheckPoint facilities, etc, so if you copy the image below or bookmark the route URL below know they are meant to give you a decent idea of this year’s route BUT THEY ARE NOT THE FINAL ROUTE AND NOT MEANT TO BE USED FOR RACE NAVIGATION OR SPECTATING.

URL TO TENTATIVE ROUTE GPS FILES

We plan to post to this blog every week or so to keep you updated on our race weekend plans. We imagine some posts will be more interesting than others (some weeks it’s all about insurance and permit paperwork, other weeks it’s about ordered swag and race route pics) but keep checking in to learn more.

One of the things we’ll share soon is our new Covid protocol, because it’s the fashionable thing to do. Okay, maybe also because it will help keep you safe. We’re excited to be able to provide this event in the midst of a pandemic and are of course aided by the fact that it’s a pretty socially distanced event by its very nature. But, precautions still need to be taken that will alter the feel of the race a bit. Rest assured it will still provide the same, if not more, sense of accomplishment.

Lastly, stay tuned for registration news. We’re hoping we’re not more than a week or so out from opening up registration for everyone. And with just a bit of luck we’ll be ready then to also announce a small bit of incentive to sign up early.