August 11, 2006 (St-Augustin, Quebec) – The 1st edition of the Challenge Louis-Garneau Québec-Trois-Rivières launches tomorrow. This first edition will feature over 100 riders in the junior male, Master B, C, D, E and women’s Senior categories. Racers depart this Saturday, August 12, at 9 o’clock in front of the Louis Garneau Sports factory in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures.

Nearly 20 cycling teams including Cascades, Club cycliste de Sherbrooke, Volkswagen-Trek and Vélo 2 Max (a Trois-Rivières team), will ride the 109-km route.

Cyclists participating in this race can upgrade their Canadian ranking as the event is nationally sanctioned race.

For this first edition, Louis Garneau and his son William will join the Élicycle Sports-Experts Louis-Garneau team at the start line.

Come and see the spectacular finish as riders are scheduled to arrive at 12:00 in front of the Jean-Guy Talbot arena in Trois-Rivières!

Be sure not to miss this event!

The Classic Louis-Garneau Montreal-Quebec
Nearly 200 Riders

This coming Sunday will mark the 58th edition of the Classic Louis-Garneau Montreal-Quebec. For the fifth consecutive year, Jean-Yves Labonté organizes the event and Louis Garneau Sports is the main sponsor.

Once again this year, the success of the race is undoubted. Nearly 200 riders will take place for the departure, among which the US teams AEG-Toshiba-Jetnetwork, Jittery Joe’s, Kenda / Raleigh Racing and the Ontario team Jetfluel Cycling. The Garneau-Optik team will also be among those taking up this challenge of riding 252 km, the equivalent of a Tour de France’s stage.

The race being sanctionned as national, riders of the Elite category, holding a Senior 1-2-3 and Master A license participating in the race can upgrade their national ranking.

Just as last year, the race will start in front of the Maurice-Richard arena in Montréal to finish with a 2-km climb on the Chemin du Roy road, in front of the Louis Garneau Sports factory in Saint-Augustin. This climb, nearing 15 degrees, will ensure a spectacular race ending!

The first riders should reach the finish line around 12:30 p.m. Come and cheer on riders participating in the 58th edition of the longest and oldest race in North America.

Spectators are also invited to attend the Cascades Sprint to be held in Trois-Rivières. The sprint winner will be awarded $500. In all, $10,000 will be awarded to the Classic Louis-Garneau Montreal-Quebec riders.

Cyclosportive Louis-Garneau Cascades
Record number of Participants

For the forth consecutive year, Louis Garneau is pround to present the Cyclosportive Louis-Garneau Cascades. This 252-km ultradistance cycling event takes the same route as that of the professional riders participating in the Classic Louis-Garneau Montréal-Québec. This year, 46 amateur riders will take the departure, that is nearly twice as much as last year.

The rumor is now confirmed! Yvan Waddel and Marc Blouin, cyclists having participated in the Olympics, will be among the 46 cyclosportive riders to take the departure one hour prior to the Classique racers, namely at 7:00 a.m. this coming Sunday. Vincenzo Meco, double winner of the Classique Québec-Anjou in 1971 and 1972 (former name of the Classic Louis-Garneau Montréal-Québec) and honorary president of the 58th edition of the Classic, will also ride his bike again to cover the 252 km along with the peloton of cyclosportive riders.

In order to emphasize the indispensable participation of Cascades in the 2005 organization of the Cyclosportive Louis-Garneau, the race has been renamed Cyclosportive Louis-Garneau Cascades. Moreover, four Cascades employees will participate in the event this year.

The Cyclosportive Louis-Garneau Cascades is aimed at raising funds for the petits frères des Pauvres, organization with the mission of providing friendly and affectionate relationships to lonely elderly persons without family support. Last year, racers help collecting $7,000 that was given to the petits frères des Pauvres, making it possible to renovate a chalet in Lake St-Joseph to welcome elderly people.

Come and cheer on amateur cyclists scheduled to arrive around 2:00 p.m.