We’re hopefully putting the finishing touches on a new, completely in-city (Winnipeg) course soon and will then post all of the details here, but this is what we can tell you at the moment:

• We’ve tried to maintain the feel of a rural event but in an urban setting, showcasing the amazing green spaces and greenways that Winnipeg has to offer.
• Our goals are to make the course more accessible to participants for whom a rural event in the frozen winter is too formidable while keeping the event challenging enough that established participants will come back for a new adventure, all while addressing some of our safety concerns and reducing the complexity of the event through things like using fewer checkpoint facilities, keeping them open for longer on a looped course where you may visit the same checkpoint up to 3 times depending on your distance.
• We’re planning to start and finish at The Forks, offering 1, 2, or 3 laps of the course depending on the distance you want to complete (distances will be similar to what we’ve offered in the recent past).
• 85-90% of the course is on officially designated bike/run multipurpose routes (this includes city roads like Wellington Crescent where vehicles are allowed but it’s a well established, marked cycling route).
• Close to 80% of the course is on DEDICATED bike/run multipurpose routes that are restricted from vehicles.
• Weather permitting we’re planning for sections on the Red and Assiniboine official river trails as well as sections alongside the Seine River and Sturgeon Creek.
• We’re planning for sections through the Spirit Woods and the Assiniboine Park Forest, and many official greenways.

Below are some pics of a recent recon of the tentative route. Hopefully more info and the actual race route will be posted soon!

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We’re working on the details for Actif Epica 2022 and hope to have much more to post in the weeks to come but we want to let everyone know that we’ll once again be hosting adventure seeking cyclists and runners, this time from Feb 18th to 20th, 2022. As in recent years we’ll offer short, mid, and long distance races for both disciplines, but we’re finalizing a substantially different course, to be posted soon. Don’t worry though, the spirit of the race remains the same as we plot a route that starts and ends at The Forks in Winnipeg and takes you on a winter adventure as together we celebrate human resilience.

Much more to come, so follow this site. Once we have a few more details nailed down we’ll also connect directly with all recent past competitors and volunteers. We’re hoping that happens by the end of August 2021, with registration to open shortly thereafter. Let’s get the family back together in 2022!

FEB 13th, 2021

CANCELLED! Yes, we’re cancelling an already cancelled event, because that’s the kind of year it’s been :). In seriousness, we woke up this morning to -38C, feels like -50C. Without a doubt if the race hadn’t already been cancelled we’d be calling it off this morning. With that in mind we’re now cancelling our own personal ride too. 

Obviously we can’t keep other people from leaving their houses and doing their own thing but we wanted to try to lead by example and say that it’s just too dangerous out there. 

We’ll leave the map below (that we personally intended to follow) up here to serve as an example of future race ideas, but know that what we end up with next year is completely up in the air at this point.

About the map below: It’s a 65km course that we’ve ridden ourselves, completely within city limits, mostly on designated bike and multi-use paths, protected bike lanes, and ‘low stress” roads. It goes through The Forks, the Assiniboine Forest and Park, along Sturgeon Creek, Omand’s Creek, the Red, Seine, and Assiniboine Rivers, the Yellow Ribbon Greenway, Wellington Crescent, and other scenic areas. There are also some less scenic parts to connect the dots.

It’s possible that we’ve made errors in our mapping (we plotted the map by hand, as opposed to actually riding with a GPS tacker as we’d do when preparing a final race route) so if you choose to use the map as an idea for your own ride or run trust your own judgement first and don’t rely on the map as though it’s a final, proofed copy. It’s not. It’s simply here as reference for future ideas, yet to be completely sorted out. 

Even if we’ve mapped everything correctly there can always be unanticipated construction, closures, detours, and other hazards, and even at the best of times there are other people and motorists (and dogs, and…) on the route who can pose their own dangers to watch out for.

In-Town Future Course Ideas