After a successful 2008, The Friends of the Greenbelt are announcing the 2009 schedule for their casual rides in the regions surrounding Toronto.
Designed for fun, rather than competition, this family-oriented cycling Tour is both accessible and affordable to all, with numerous attractions and a variety of rest stops along the way. Described as a ‘fresh air festival on wheels,’ the Tour takes place over four fully paved, marshaled routes.
The four routes include:
• Saturday, September 12 - Niagara-on-the-Lake
• Sunday, September 13 - Burlington, Halton & St. Catharines
• Saturday, September 26 - Newmarket & Lake Simcoe
• Sunday, September 27 - Rouge Valley & Durham
At the end of each route, riders will enjoy a chance to rest and mingle with fellow riders while enjoying freshly prepared local Greenbelt food – all included in the price of your ride!
See the attached pdf for all the details, or check out their Tour de Greenbelt web site.
Surprisingly, I had a hard time finding photographs of the rides from last year. The only ones I found were of these people having fun on the Niagara ride.
Comments
Andrew
Good rides
Sat, 04/04/2009 - 09:10I enjoyed the Newmarket to Lake Simcoe route last year. I thought the ride was organized really well, and I'm planning on riding one or more routes this year. I have one small criticism about the registration system used last year. I asked my friends, family and co-workers to sponsor the ride, but in the end I was never notified that I had received any pledges. I would have liked to have thanked all the people who pledged, but I had no list of people to contact.
jamesmallon (not verified)
Winery?!
Sat, 04/04/2009 - 10:08Did the ride last year that ended at Henry of Pelham (Niagara OTL). The winery was generous with the space they put aside for the dining tents and barbeques, but more so with the unlimited pours of their house reds and whites. I just had to buy a few bottles before I got on the bus, after going into the wine shop for more tastings. Needless to say, I was feeling no pain.
For their first year this was marvelously well organized: this year should be even better. They could have chosen a more scenic route from Hamilton to NOTL (avoid highway service roads), though that's a quibble. A little more sign, police or organizer presence on the roads to clue-in drivers might aid safety. Looks like this year it is rally style: routes of different lengths starting and ending in the same spots. Not sure how they can create an obvious enough presence on the roads for drivers at 100km/h to get it.
I will do more than one ride this year.
Donald GO-by-Bi...
Take the GO Train for the Burlington-St. Catharines Tour de Belt
Mon, 04/06/2009 - 17:39Took the Burlington "Tour de Belt" last year.
It was great to see the hundreds of cyclists out for the day, but it was not great to see that many (most?) had arrived by car.
For 2009, please note the Burlington GO Train Station is hardly a kilometre south of the MEC starting point on Brant Street.
http://www.gotransit.com/publicroot/en/station/station.aspx?station=BUGO
Bikes+Transit.com... Get right on it!
http://www.bikesandtransit.com