2018 Granfondo Yunnan to enjoy face-lift
As already announced on social media some time ago, the 5th edition of Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival is forecast to have a significant face-lift. New stages, but also new cities and an additional prologue time trial are some of those new highlights from 3 to 10 November 2018.
Registration for the big multiple day cycling event is scheduled for late June/early July when all necessary paperwork has been approved by local and regional authorities. We beg for your patience until then. At present, the granfondo event will no longer depart in Kunming, nor will it have stages in Yuxi and Chuxiong. As of this year, the itinerary will take cyclists to the Southwest of Yunnan Province, to the Dehong and Tengchong regions bordering Myanmar. Extremely colourful and very different as, of course, a lot of ethnic Burmese live in those regions.
Riders who take part in the whole programme, the full granfondo week, will commence their journey on Saturday afternoon already with a short prologue time trial of 9 km ending in front of a famous and big Buddhist monastery on a hill overlooking Mangshi, first host city of the 2018 Granfondo Yunnan event. The first stage "in line" will measure approx 115 km from Mangshi to Ruili with a 6km long climb before the descent into the bordertown of Ruili. On Monday, there will be a longish second stage of approx 150 km with a mixture of mountainous and flat roads. Tuesday is scheduled to be a rest day and transit day. Tengchong is next on the programme, namely, with a course to be confirmed end of May. The sketch says a 200 km loop to be completed within a timeframe, but the actual timed race could be shorter (think of car rally races). Stages 4 and 5 will again be hosted by Dali and Lijiang - two of Yunnan's main tourism hotspots. The Dali stage course could be similar to last year's, although it is envisaged to do a semi circle of the famous Erhai Lake. The Lijiang stage is planned to mirror last year's with finish on top of Maoniuping at 3300m above sea level after the longest climb many of you will ever do in your lifetime. Unfortunately, the previously proposed stage to Lugu Lake is not yet politically feasible.
Our technical team and the race director will be visiting the Dehong and Tengchong area again at the end of May to finalise this year's new stage courses in conjunction with local authorities. In the mean time, you can check travel options. We will have busses from Kunming airport to Mangshi, but you might wish to fly there as well.If you do the whole granfondo tour, keep in mind that there is a prologue time trial on Saturday afternoon! It counts for the GC.