Le Tour De l’Ile de Montréal

If you live in Montreal and haven’t done this at least once, you are definitely missing out on something very unique.  It is not in every city where the streets are closed for a full day so that thousands of  people of all ages ride around the city on their bikes.  The tour, organized by Vélo Québec, will be held on Sunday June 7 and is a perfect opportunity to get to know your city as the trajectory pretty much takes you everywhere. The path varies between 40 and 50 km and has several sponsored rest areas with free food and drinks, although you should  still bring a lunch because let’s just say that whatever they offer is kind of  ‘bite-size’ especially for a full day of biking.

The registration fee is minimal (about 20$ for adults) and is worth every penny. The truth is you can probably do the same tour on your own for free, as the trajectory is pretty much a mish-mash of various bike paths,  but nothing can be compared  to riding along thousands of people, including families, couple, the people who are really into it (you know, the ones with their tights and shit) and of course, my favorites:  the weirdos.

You might have noticed from some of my other posts that I am immensely intrigued by weirdos.  Well The Tour de l’ile is like a specialty store for weirdos, covering the complete biking sector.   These people are probably very normal individuals during the day, but when they get on their bikes, that’s when they transform into bicycle-freaks.  A Lot of them are testing bikes they have made in their garage.  It’s as if they are unsatisfied with the conventional bicycle design that seems just fine to me. Correct me if I’m wrong but the bicycle is the most common mode of transport in the world, with billions of them being used on a daily basis, and they seem to work just fine! But no.  There are some people out there who think that is should be redesigned and end up with some things that look stupid, but not as stupid as the people on them, who typically look extremely proud and uncomfortable at the same time: very entertaining .

The Tour de l’Ile is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and they will be celebrating it with shows and concerts.  The Cirque du Soleil is also celebrating their 25th anniversary, so look for some interesting free shows. The weekend has several bike tours, including the Tour la Nuit and the metropolitan challenge, which is a competitive version of the tour.

You can visit the Vélo Québec website for more info.  Montrealing will be doing a recap of all 3 of the events. If you are interseted in reporting one of them, do not hesitate to contact us.

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