Great news!..the City has approved our route for 2022. It may still see minor changes as we monitor for things like road construction and other stuff as we approach race weekend but what you see above is more less what you’ll get.

If you’ve been following this blog note a change in the south east part of the course from what we posted as a tentative route a few weeks ago. We decided on a route that takes us further east along the Fermor Greenway and into Sage Creek because it avoids having to use a less desirable route along Dakota that had a number of street crossings.

We’ve ridden the route a few times now, by ourselves and with a few friends to get their viewpoint too, and we’re really happy with what we’ve come up with this year.

We hope that it is virtually Covid proof. Moving things completely into the city helps if we need to be less supported due to restrictions if, for instance, new laws prohibit us from operating manned CheckPoints. Participants will be much closer to Race Headquarters and there will be a number of 24 hour shops (e.g. 7-Eleven, Tim Horton’s) close to the route should people need to find emergency shelter until we can get to them. Conditions will likely be less severe (e.g. fewer huge snow drifts to impede progress) and volunteer rovers will be more easily dispatched to keep an eye on slower moving racers. Cellular service should be good throughout the route. Overall participants should be less vulnerable on the new route than in previous years if we need to move to a less supported format.

With all of that said, our plan is to run the event essentially as we have in past with manned CheckPoints that participants pass through as they make progress. We’re targeting The Forks and a 2nd location around the half-way point of the route to act as CheckPoints, which when including the Start and Finish of the race (also at The Forks) would amount to 3, 5, or 7 stops depending on whether you plan to do 1, 2 or 3 laps. The distance and time spent between the CheckPoints is similar to what it has been in previous years.

We’re waiting hopefully just a couple more days to open registration. We’re basically ready to go but want to nail down a couple of final details mostly around contingency plans in case we have to move to a virtual event, and we want to be able to share all of that info with you before we take your money. We meet tomorrow to hopefully make those final decisions and have what we’re calling a ”semi-virtual” option if Covid restrictions really increase, though we’re optimistic that we’ll be able to run the event at full strength using plan A.

In the mean time the full Course Guide has now been posted. We may enhance it with a bit more info in the weeks to come but the full general description of the course is now posted.

We’ll be back in touch soon!