Montreal is officially in the middle of cycling’s biggest week, with riders from around the world racing through the city for the the UCI Road World Championship.
“We are actually from Edmonton, Alberta, but we were on a holiday in Spain and decided that on the way home we need to stop there for a week. So that’s why we’re here just to watch the races,” said Ella Rokosh.
While the competition is drawing fans from around the world, it’s also reshaping the way Montrealers get around.
CityNews spoke with restaurant and shop owners on a stretch of Parc Avenue that’s been closed for the past two weeks. They were disappointed with slow business.
“We were expecting a business boom. The city told us it would happen because of the 20,000 people gathering here. We prepared and bought lots of stuff, but now we are struggling,” said Ahmed Shapnil, a supervisor at Marché Ô Coin du Parc.
Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada acknowledged the event “has a significant impact on mobility and on the fact that people also need to get around.”
“The mobility plan was finalized in June, and today we have a daily monitoring team that meets morning and evening to make adjustments and respond quickly to issues,” she said.
It’s a drive that usually takes 15 minutes to get from downtown to Parc and Mont Royal, but on Monday, it took almost an hour because of road closures and police barricades.
“We can sacrifice a bit of road closures for something like this. It’s fun, and the weather is nice. Why not?” said Montrealer Lama Azzam.
“Do we have inconvenience for 10 days, sure, but I think the cost, the money that comes into the economy, I think it’s gonna have more people than people that’s gonna disappoint,” said Nirmal Desai, a Montrealer.
An interactive city map shows the road closures for this week. Bonaventure Highway was closed Monday until 3:30 p.m., and Tuesday, it will be closed again starting from 6:30 a.m. until 5:45 p.m. Over the weekend, the Champlain Bridge will be closed to daytime traffic for the final events.
“For me, it’s just fantastic to be able to see those cyclists and not being able to drive for me; it’s not a problem,” said one Montrealer.
Another disruption was avoided late Monday afternoon, after an agreement in principle was reached between the city and its blue collar workers to avoid a seven-day strike that would have impacted city services amid the race.
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