Tour of Kansas City Gran Fondo: "A pleasure ride on steroids"

The 2014 Tour of Kansas City June 20-22 features a Gran Fondo (Kansas Citys' first!), a Fun Ride (bicycle tour of Kansas City landmarks), real ale fest, festivals, and of course racing: Friday night sprints, Saturday crits, and Sunday circuit race on Cliff Drive. 

Tour of Kansas City June 20-22, 2014

The Tour is a major annual fundraiser for the Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking - helping to support our statewide advocacy and outreach in support of bicycling and walking across Missouri.

Today's Lee's Summit Journal covered the Tour:

Gran Fondo sounds like a pretty fancy word, but leave it to organizers of the annual Tour of Kansas City to translate the slogan into plain speak.

The cycling event is part of the 51st annual Tour of Kansas City, a two-day European-style cycling festival taking part in various areas of the metropolitan area including New Longview in Lee’s Summit.

The Tour will take place June 21-22 and feature a stop at New Longview in Lee’s Summit June 21. New Longview will host short-course criterium races, kids races, a bike expo and bike swap, the Real Ale Fest and the region’s first Gran Fondo.

Gran Fondo is an Italian term for a short- to long-distance, organized, mass-participation cycling event. It begins at 7:30 a.m. and features five distances of 15-, 25-, 46-, 70-, and 101-mile rides.

“Gran Fondo is a 10-cent word for a really fancy bike ride; a pleasure ride,” said New Longview developer David Gale of Gale Communities, Inc. “We have the competitive (criterium) races, which anybody can enter, but the first thing in the morning we will have the Gran Fondo. It will be Kansas City’s first Gran Fondo.”

Formerly the Rock Island Ramble, the Gran Fondo will travel the rural roads along the historic Rock Island Railroad route through eastern Jackson County and northern Cass County. It’s considered a challenging ride that combines the best elements of epic recreational rides, scenic touring rides, and road races.