Gran Fondo World Tour – a competitive series for amateur riders

A new Gran Fondo World Tour has been announced where amateur riders will compete for ranking points across a series of mass participation cycling events. At present, the series comprises six races, but organisers say they are looking at adding a seventh.

The series will start in Spain on April 3 with the Oakley Gran Fondo in Barcelona. Other events will then take place in Kuwait, Italy, Norway and the USA before finishing with Gran Fondo Kazakhstan in Almaty on September 11.

Dani Buyo, the general manager of Gran Fondo World Tour, said:

“This project is meant to be a challenge for amateur riders from all over the world. We think it makes sense to offer them a competitive experience similar to the professional UCI World Tour.

“Up to this point, both organisers and sponsors have warmly welcomed our project. There are several events aiming to be included in our calendar in the coming years. For the time being, we prefer to be judicious and to start with this restricted list of events.”

The Gran Fondo World Tour is not to be confused with the UCI Gran Fondo World Series. The latter comprises 14 events, including the Tour of Cambridgeshire in June.

In each event in that series, the top 25 per cent in each age group qualify for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, which this year will be held in Perth, Australia, in September.