A local sports nutrition business will offer refreshments at two of four aid stations for the GranFondo Whistler this Saturday.
The business, Blonyx, will be supplying one of its products called Hydra+ to the racers who take the time to stop at one of the aid stations.
“They wanted our Hydra+ product, which is basically a real food hydration product,” said Rowan Minnion, CEO of Blonyx and local Squamish resident.
The aid stations with Blonyx product will be at the first and last stops located at Porteau Cove and Brandywine Falls. The two middle aid stations are at Alice Lake and the salt shed along the highway, respectively.
Minnion said that Blonyx originally started working exclusively with CrossFit athletes, but has since evolved to work with other athletes, including road cyclists.
Blonyx originally planned to have its products at the GranFondo a few years ago, but the pandemic halted that opportunity, said Minnion. Because the GranFondo was going ahead this year, the opportunity returned.
Although the GranFondo is a hotly debated topic in Squamish because of its highway closures, Minnion said he thought the race could help the town get new exposure.
“Living in Squamish, I understand any disruption, any crash or anything like that everyone knows about it and wants to know about it because it has that disruption,” he said. “The way I see it is [the race] is such a small amount of time, and I love this town, and I want to show this town off to everybody.”
“I think it really is good exposure for all the businesses in town that people are driving past. I think it puts the Sea to Sky, in general, on the map quite a bit.”
This year’s race includes about 6,500 riders, with over 30% of them coming from outside of B.C.
The GranFondo Whistler takes place this Saturday, Sept. 10. It begins at approximately 7 a.m. in Stanley Park and finishes in Whistler.
Squamish residents should expect to see major highway delays between 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. from Valley Drive to Depot Road, with total closure of the highway from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. except for Clark Drive access to the hospital and Dowad Drive access to Garibaldi Highlands.
