Only one week after the 2019 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships wrapped up in Poland, 2882 riders lined up in Vancouver, Canada to try and qualify for the 2020 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships to be held in Vancouver on the same RBC Granfondo Whistler course.
Conditions were perfect at the seaside start in Downtown Vancouver and throughout the day as 2331 men and 551 women raced 122km up into the sky at Whistler Village ski resort.
Jaco Cronje (M35-39) from Texas was the fastest gran fondo rider, arriving at Whistler in 3:14:18, followed by Marty Heck (M45-49) and Bryan Hoadley (M50-54).
Laura Matsen Ko (W35-39) was the first gran fondo women to cross the finish line in 3:26:47 and in 38th place overall. Julie Petersen (W50-54) was 2nd and Carolyn Russell (W45-49) was 3rd.
Racers finishing within the top 20% of their age group automatically qualify for the 2020 Gran Fondo World Championships in Vancouver. Below are qualifying statistics for some of the most popular UCI age groups based on initial results from RBC Granfondo Whistler.
Age Group, #riders, time cutoff, #qualifying
M35-39 295, 3:58, 59
M40-44 270, 4:01, 54
M45-49 319, 4:06, 63
M50-54 332, 4:03, 66
M55-59 279, 4:10, 55
M60-64 206, 4:10, 41
W35-39 80, 4:19, 16
W40-44 91, 4:35, 18
W45-49 54, 4:24, 10
GRAN FONDO DAILY NEWS 