February 24, 2007 – Pedal has learned that Quebec’s Beauce region will host the 2007 Canadian Road Championships, possibly from July 2-8. The agreement between the Canadian Cycling Association and the Tour de Beauce will be announced early next week. “The deal is not signed yet, but both parties have agreed over the essential parts”, said a source involved with the negotiations.

The Beauce region will also host the event in 2008 as part of the new plan. “This is one compromise the CCA had to make to have the Beauce organizers host the event on such short notice,” said the same source. “They had to be guaranteed that their organization would be of some use for more than five months.”

Originally the Road Nationals were announced in a CCA preliminary schedule to be held from July 7-15. But the CCA has been in a bind since late December as there were date conflicts with the new Montreal-Boston race and the UCI continental Tour of Utah event that forced the CCA to shuffle its dates.

The Granby-Bromont, Que. bid to host the 2007 Road Nationals thus fell through after many months of talks. The Eastern Townships concept was ambitious, as it would have included all cycling disciplines (Road, Track, MTB, DH, BMX, etc.).