Tour of Alberta

There's a big event in town this week that has cycling enthusiasts very excited. It's the Tour of Alberta, the highest profile bike race in Canada, bringing the top cyclists in the world to our little province!  The event kicked off this weekend with a family ride in downtown Edmonton on Monday.  The  Edmonton stage of the race, called the Prologue, begins this evening at 6:15 at Churchill Square. The race will continue throughout the week winding 900 km through the province before finishing Sept. 8 in Calgary.

I heard that race organizers were looking for volunteers so I decided to sign up. I spent several hours on Saturday and Sunday getting immersed in the logistics of the event, putting decals on vehicles and picking up event participants at the airport.

 

 

 

 

 Here I am with my fellow volunteer, Don, applying the "eyebrow" decal to one of the event vehicles. It's one of those times when having long arms comes in handy.

 

Don modelling the volunteer t-shirt as we wait to pick up people at the airport. The guys in the background are with the Jelly Belly Cycling Team. Who knew that the Jelly Belly candy company sponsored pro cycling!

 

One of the mechanics with the Australian team Orica Greenedge

 

The US BMC team includes Australian Cadel Evans, the 2011 Tour de France winner

 

BMC mechanics working on bikes while a cameraman films the action

 

 

The US Garmin-Sharp team includes Canadian Ryder Hesjedal who won the 2012 Giro d'Italia

 

If you're interested in finding out more about the ins and outs of the race, check out the Tour of Alberta website.  There are also some great articles on the Edmonton Journal website, including this one: Green means fast, yellow is the best.

 

I'm planning to watch the Edmonton race with a couple of my coworkers this evening starting at 6:15 pm.  Stay tuned for more ...

Posted with Blogsy