Around 800 cyclists hit the streets of Sarnia-Lambton on Sunday for this year's Bluewater International Granfondo (B.I.G).
Chair Ken MacAlpine said organizers are rating it as the best granfondo to date.
"And that is based on incredible, variable feedback we've had from the riders, follow-up emails with them congratulating us and also texts and quite a number of phone calls the committee has received. So, definitely an overwhelming success."
The sixth annual event saw a return to its pre-COVID setup with riders taking off from Mike Weir Park.
MacAlpine said the number of participants was down a bit from the roughly 1,000 they had in years past but that it's still exceptionally good compared to other cycling events across Canada.
"And a large number of the people are looking at coming back and bringing their friends, families, etc., so I would not be surprised with 1,200 in 2023."
Final accounting for the event has not yet been tallied but MacAlpine said they're looking north of $70,000 raised.
"I think this would be the largest single contribution that we have made so far and it will put us over $300,000 for total money that we've donated."
The goal was to raise another $60,000 for palliative care education in Sarnia-Lambton.
Cyclists taking part in the inaugural BIG Slow Roll. 29 July 2022. (Kerry's Klips Photography)
This year also marked the inaugural Slow Roll event which featured around 600 participants.
"The B.I.G. Slow Roll was unbelievably successful and beyond the committee's highest expectations for the first year of the event," said MacAlpine. "We've had over 100 people get to us and say 'hey, make sure you do it again in 2023.'"
MacAlpine said Friday's ride was predominantly families, including one team that was four generations.
He added that quite a few out-of-towners made their way to Ontario's Blue Coast for the weekend.
"We've always had an international audience, but this year about 30 per cent, at least, of the riders were from out of Lambton County and we had riders here from France, Africa, South America, USA and of course most of the Canadian provinces."
MacAlpine said the overwhelming need for people to be active is evident through Sarnia-Lambton's cycling community.
"Anybody that drives on the roads on a regular basis can see that there's more and more cyclists out there everyday," he said. "And I think that's really proving to council that they need to fast-track the Active Transportation plan because the roads are just getting more and more cyclists on them."
MacAlpine said the event ran totally trouble-free with no major incidents. He credits the "awesome" organizing committee for the accomplishment.
