UPDATE ON UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS OF 2025 AND VIRTUAL AMY’S GRAN FONDO
Written by Jamie Samuel, AGF Media Intern
The Amy Gillett Foundation (AGF) is thrilled to announce that Victoria will host the Union Cycliste International (UCI) Gran Fondo World Championships in 2025. Thanks to the support of the Victorian Government, regional Victoria will host the world’s leading amateur road cycling event.
The UCI Gran Fondo World Championships involve road race, time trial and team relay events for qualified male and female cyclists across multiple age groups.
For only the third time, the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships will be staged outside of Europe. It’s expected to attract cyclists from over 50 countries to Victoria. The event is forecast to contribute $9.8 million to Victoria’s economy.
This year, as we saw our 10th Annual Amy’s Great Ocean Road Gran Fondo postponed to 2021, we hosted our inaugural Virtual Amy’s Gran Fondo Livestream event with partners Zwift, O2 Events and Everyday Hero. The AGF would like to thank every single one of you who joined our virtual ride. The Virtual Amy’s Gran Fondo was a huge success with 489 riders who raced across three distances and together, we raised $38,598 to support our mission to stop preventable cyclist deaths.
Congratulations to the day’s fastest riders!
107km fastest male rider: Alastair Christie-Johnston (overall winner)
107km fastest female rider: Laura Luxford
55km fastest male rider: Michael Hill (overall winner)
55km fastest female rider: Samara Sheppard
10km winner: William Rueckert
2020 saw us unable to start the event in Lorne this year – Instead we ran a virtual event, visiting the Volcano of Watopia, the Epic KOM replaced Mount Sabine before we hit the wonderful Jungle Circuit in place of the Great Otways.
Wrapping things up, we headed along the coastline of Downtown Watopia in celebration of the Great Ocean Road – where the event was originally set to take place.
We couldn’t have ran such an exciting event without the enormous support from so many friends of AGF, including Brunswick Cycling Club, as well as the team from Genovese Coffee. Our warm thanks to Moreland City Council for their support and allowing us to HQ our virtual ride at the Brunswick Velodrome.
We would like to acknowledge the efforts of Matt Keenan for being our host, alongside Duncan Armstrong OAM, Sandy Woolley and Dy Hannan from Telstra Connected Cycling. Thanks for conducting several insightful interviews, who included:
- The Hon. Ben Carroll MP, Victorian Minister for Public Transport and for Roads and Road Safety.
- The Hon. Dave Sharma MP, Member for Wentworth, Chair of Joint Standing Committee on Treaties and co-chair of the newly-founded Parliamentary Friends of Cycling Group.
- Phil Anderson, former cyclist and Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
- Mary Safe, mother of Amy Gillett.
- Andy Gowers, former Hawthorn FC star and premiership player.
- Anthony Seipolt and the Great Ocean Road Cycling Club and Anthony Aisenberg of CrowdSpot.
We would like to say a huge thanks to our guest speakers and hosts for their time and efforts. Thank you to our whole community for all of the wonderful ways you support our mission to stop preventable cyclist deaths.
