The growth of gran fondos in North America shows no signs of slowing.

No fewer than three of the biggest players are discussing new gran fondo events in America while two significant road racing events in the Northeast are switching to the gran fondo format.

The Velothon series, GFNY and RCS, of Giro fame, are all talking up events in the United States and the Tour of The Catskills and the Tour of The Battenkill are converting.

Riders tackling the 2016 Velothon Wales
The owners of the Giro d'Italia would seem a natural fit with the race format that was born in Italy. RCS currently runs gran fondos with the iconic pink shading on stages of the Giro itself (like the TdF's L'Etape), in Vienna and in Northern Ireland (a legacy from the Giro's warmly welcomed Big Start there in 2014).

There are plans for growth with the USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Colombia listed for future events on the Giro website.

For RCS an American event would be a return to previously visited territory after an absence of several years. In 2012 and 2013 there were Gran Fondo Giro d'Italia events in Pasadena, at the Sea Otter Classic, Beverly Hills and Miami as well as a VIP package at the New York Five Boro Bike Tour.

Another group with ambitious expansion plans is Lagardère Sports, owner of the Velothon Series of events in Berlin, Stockholm, Stuttgart and Wales as well as the Hamburg Cyclassics, which started it all off.

It is looking to run a Velothon in Portland, Oregon, as part of the Portland Grand Prix. Sponsorship issues forced a postponement from the original 2015 target, but Portland is one of the prospects for 2016 listed on the Velothon website alongside Copenhagen, Dublin, Durban (South Africa), Medellin (Colombia).

Lagardère was just bought by the IRONMAN group and Andrew Messick, IRONMAN's CEO, was bullish about biking when assessing the deal.

"Cycling is part of our core strategy, creating new events, maybe acquiring events," he said.

Start of 2014 GFNY with Manhattan skyline. Credit: SPORTOGRAF.COM
In contrast to the foreign operators heading to the US, GFNY is firmly rooted here despite rapid overseas growth of the GFNY World series.

In a recent announcement GFNY said it was expecting to have multiple new American events "in great US destinations starting 2017" as well as expanding further overseas.

Apart from the original event starting on the George Washington Bridge connecting Manhattan and New Jersey, which also serves as the championship event for GFNY World, GFNY works with local organizers around the globe.

It is currently evaluating "several dozen" proposals for new outposts of the GFNY empire.

To the sorrow of the dedicated road racing community in New York and New England, in the definite rather than possible column are the Tour of The Catskills and the Tour of The Battenkill.

Registration opened today (February 1) for the new Tour of The Catskills Open Gran Fondo offering 75-, 50- and 25-mile options.

For eight years the Tour of The Catskills in and around Tannersville and Windham, NY, attracted licensed racers for three days of competition across time trial, circuit and road race.

A finisher at the 2015 Tour of The Battenkill Gran Fondo.
Organizer Anthem Sports also runs the Tour of the Battenkill and that iconic event, which could fairly describe itself as "America's Queen of the Classics", will also become an open gran fondo.

For 2016, racing has been cut back to a single day, moved to May 21 and is not USAC sanctioned. In 2017 there will be only the gran fondo on offer.

The Catskills change prompted one comment of "ROAD IS DEAD" on the Tour's Facebook page.

On Battenkill's Facebook page, the shift was put squarely in economic terms by the organizer:

"8-10 hours per police/marshall/staff post...and 80 pace and follow cars, 45 officials and housing."

"The costs associated with traditional category racing (pace cars, neutral support, officials, permitting, staff, volunteers, police, and insurance) are becoming cost prohibitive."

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