The Blue Mountains Gravel Fondo is a new event organized by Bruce Bird, multiple UCI Gran Fondo World Champion in both time trial and road racing and organizer of the Blue Mountains Gran Fondo who was part of the UCI Gran Fondo World Series from 2015-2019. The event in Ontario’s lake region is a true Gravel paradise.
The course starts and finishes in the center of Thornbury at the Georgian Bay for a first flat 10k. The gravel roads then head south for a tough 7k uphill with a gradient varying from 2% to 6% and an average of 3% followed by a small downhill and another 2k uphill at 6% average. The middle section of the course has rolling hills with a third 3k hill starting at km 69 at 4.5% average before entering a single track section. The last 27km towards the finish is back on the same roads that were used in the start.
The shorter 63km course makes a shortcut after the second hill to rejoin the 102k course for these same final 27km towards the finish in the city center of Thornbury.