April 14 is a critical day for Jasper’s Tour of Alberta organizing committee.
That day, Mayor Richard Ireland—the committee’s co-chair—will present to business owners at the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce meeting, asking for their support and participation in the September bike race. At the same time, Matt
Decore, the committee’s other co-chair, will be meeting with representatives from Medalist Sports—the organization that coordinates the Tour of Alberta—to finalize the race route, including the start and finish lines.
The world class cycling event, which attracts the same athletes who compete in the Tour de France, takes place from Sept. 2–7. Jasper will host one start and two finishes.
“Most towns have one start or one finish,” said Decore. “Jasper is fortunate—we’re in a fortunate position—because we leveraged our location and we got three events.”
On Sept. 4, the community will host the Stage 2 finish line, as cyclists pedal from Grande Cache to Jasper, and the following day it will host a start line somewhere in the townsite, and a finish line at Marmot Basin.
At this point, Jasper’s organizing committee has a proposed route, including start and finish lines, but until everything is finalized, that information is under wraps.
“I can’t talk about that yet,” said Decore, “but hopefully on April 14, after that visit, we’ll have the necessary commitments from the powers that be.”
Beyond route planning, Jasper’s local organizing committee (LOC) has spent the last six weeks getting itself organized, filling the various roles on the committee and getting everyone up to speed on their roles and responsibilities.
As of last week, there was only one position left to fill: ancillary event coordinator. That person will be responsible for organizing volunteers to go out and experience the park, whether it be climbing mountains or paddling kayaks, providing visuals for the television crews flying over the course.
Decore said the goal is to use those visuals and stories to reflect Jasper’s character.
“On the stage that starts and finishes in Jasper, we have an opportunity to help message that production.
“If it’s rafters coming down the river on that day and they get filmed, then we have the ability to give [the broadcasters] a little description of the river or the rafting companies. If they’re flying next to a lake and there’s some people fishing on it, for example, we would have another scripted program on how great the fishing is in Jasper.
“So, now we are actually looking for someone to coordinate those, what we call, ancillary events. Someone that would be engaging people to get out there and enjoy the park in responsible ways, so that we can get out and film them along the course.”
According to Decore, it’s those visuals—which will be broadcast to more than 40 million viewers in countries around the world—that Jasper can really capitalize on.
“The fact that they have those two helicopters with HD cameras going through this picturesque valley is a tremendous opportunity for us to show why Jasper’s such a special place to live in and why people would want to come and, not only travel and be a tourist here, but perhaps even come and work here.”
Anyone interested in joining the committee or sponsoring the event is encouraged to contact Ellen Eadie at [email protected], and those interested in volunteering during the September event are asked to register at www.tourofalberta.ca.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
