With less than 10 days to go before the Tour of Alberta swings into town, its executive director is praising Innisfail's committed efforts to showcase itself to the world.
“One hundred per cent pleased,” said Duane Vienneau, who conceded he's not involved in the planning details of participating communities. “All of our people are telling me that Innisfail is ready to put on a great show and everyone is excited to come there for that start.”
But there is a troublesome issue with volunteers. There is not enough stepping up to the plate. Local organizers are concerned heading into Innisfail's Stage 2 hosting on Sept. 4 that they only have half the number required to ensure success for the host community.
“Currently we have 31 volunteers who registered with the Tour of Alberta site for the Innisfail start line. We are needing approximately 75 volunteers to pull off a really successful event,” said Tammy Oliver-McCurdie, operations coordinator for the local organizing committee.
Oliver-McCurdie, however, is hopeful citizens will step forward on Aug. 28 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Community Room at the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre when the committee hosts a public information session and volunteer update and sign-up forum.
“We need another 40 people to step forward to man some road closures and do some volunteering,” noted Mayor Brian Spiller of the urgent need for more volunteers. “Maybe it is like anything else where you don't get much response until the week of it and then you will have 200 people volunteering.”
The five-stage second annual Tour of Alberta event, which will be broadcast in more than 160 countries across the world, begins with Stage 1 in Lethbridge on Sept. 2 and ends in Edmonton on Sept. 7.
Innisfail was chosen to host the start of Stage 2 on Sept. 4. The local route with an estimated 120 riders will start with a double loop through Innisfail's downtown. It will exit town to Highway 54, north towards Sylvan Lake on Highway 781, and then along Highway 20 through Sylvan Lake, then to Highway 597 and through Blackfalds, and ending in Red Deer. The total distance is 145 kilometres.
Vienneau, a 45-year-old veteran of leading major national sporting events and facilities, said Innisfail was chosen as one of the race's host communities because of its ability to support the Red Deer finish, a factor the led to a strong endorsement from the Central Alberta city.
“It came down to, ‘Is the community able to host an event like this?' That is really the biggest thing for us, and Innisfail said, ‘Yes, we want to do this and we will do a great job', and all indications right now are saying that is the case,” said Vienneau. “When we have international visitors and an international television audience, and when we spotlight a specific community, we want to make sure that community is ready for that, and we believe Innisfail is.”
Vienneau noted the stakes are high for the event and its host communities, noting the race will be viewed by millions of cycling enthusiasts from around the world. In its inaugural race last year, the Tour of Alberta -- Canada's largest professional stage road cycling event -- achieved a television audience of 41 million viewers.
“If you put that in perspective right now, Canada's largest annual sporting event is Grey Cup, and its television audience is six million,” said Vienneau, who headed the organizing team that put together Grey Cup festivities for Edmonton when it hosted the prestigious national event in 2010. “So when you compare those things, you really start to understand how big this event is.
“We bring international visitors in. We also have a lot of people from Alberta who like to travel from community to community and follow the races,” he added. “There's going to be people who are going to come to Innisfail for that start (Stage 2) that are Albertans who never stopped in to Innisfail before.”
Vienneau said the goal with the race's top officials is to make the Tour of Alberta a “sustainable” annual event. He said the race, which is operating on a $6-million budget, was able to get launched last year with heavy million-dollar support from the provincial government, which contributed $4 million, mostly through its Rural Alberta Development Fund. This year, the province gave organizers $1.5 million.
“That is quite a difference going from four to one and a half, and we have made it up in some community rights fee models and corporate sponsors,” said Vienneau. “Every year we are going to be building our revenue streams and building our model. Our ultimate goal is to be self-sustaining so we can control our own destiny.”
Vienneau said organizers are already targeting for the third year of the Tour of Alberta, adding that announcements could be made during this year's race week about potential future destinations it plans on going to.
“We are working towards that, and ultimately be around forever,” said Vienneau.
For more information on Innisfail's Tour of Alberta plans, or to find out about volunteer opportunities, citizens can contact Eileen Reid, volunteer coordinator at the town's FCSS office at 403-227-7744 or by email at [email protected]
