The Alaska Range Bicycle Gran Fondo ...

We can do this. Let's get it done.

Click on map to enlarge.

First, we are willing to help in any way that we can in getting an annual Alaska Range Bicycle Gran Fondo started  next summer, in 2015. "We" being the Steese Review and Hilding Lindquist, Editor and Publisher.

We have used the free Alaska Travel Map of Alaska.org and we are contacting them by email to enlist their cooperation.

If we organize it under Hilding Lindquist's Race Director Certification from USA Cycling—Olympics' cyclist development organization—then a well-organized and structured format comes into play with comprehensive liability insurance for the participants at all levels.

 "USA Cycling maintains development programs for men and women in all disciplines of competitive cycling, providing a struc- tured pathway to the top tier of the sport. In 2011, hundreds of individual riders took part in USA Cycling’s National Development Program, gaining valuable race experience through more than 2,900 fully supported race days." -USA Cycling Fact Sheet

You can contact us at hilding.lindquist@gmail.com

It's going to happen ...

It's going to happen so why not now? Which means begin planning now for an Alaska Range Bicycle Gran Fondo to tour the "Alaska Range loop" next year, 2015.

And what is the "Alaska Range loop?"

It's the route shown on the map below from Ester to Nenana to Cantwell to Denali National Park to Wasilla/Palmer to Glennallen to Tok to Delta Junction to North Pole to Fairbanks to Ester.

Of course it can start at any one of those points, and let me suggest that the town that jumps on it first will reap huge benefits in the years to follow as it will—I predict—become one of the major bicycle gran fondos of the world, attracting hundreds if not thousands of cyclists.

And it can add on a competitive event that will—again, I predict—grow to be a rival of the Tour de France in capturing the imagination of world-class cyclists.

And what if it doesn't reach those lofty pinnacles of success? It doesn't have to in order to be a major event, which it will be as soon as it is organized and scheduled by an established group supported by the businesses of one or more of the communities on the route.

And yes, I would like to help ... pro bono ... than means "for free." "Why is that?," you might ask. Well, it's because I am in the consulting business and it is great advertising to originate and then be associated with great ideas.

For the moment I am pushing the folks in Ester to make a decision. Gold Hill Alaska (Point A) is right across the Parks Highway from the Blue Loon And I am working with Nugget Gulch, Gold Hill Alaska, Central Corner Alaska and other businesses along the get the Steese Summer Solstice Bicycle Gran Fondo rolling for 2015.