Bike Month 2025 – Bicycle Racing!
“All Gas, No Brakes!“
All Gas, No Brakes: Ontario’s Summer-Long Bike-Racing Carnival Begins Now
It’s Bike Month and Bicycle Racing is in full swing! Judi and I have experienced a number of cycle races, and experiencing them never grows old. The excitement of 100 riders flying by and the sound or hundreds or tires as they meet gravel and pavement is unforgettable. If you have never witnessed a cycling race, put one on the to-do list. You won’t regret it!
June crackles with race-day electricity in Ontario. By the time the lilacs fade, start-line tapes are snapping in the wind from Milton to Muskoka, and every kind of bicycle, from BMX firecrackers to gravel war-horses, begs to be ridden at the red line. What follows is your ringside seat to the province’s biggest races after June 1, a season that hurtles forward on adrenaline, carbon fibre, and the roar of cowbells. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
Gate-Drop to Glory –, June 7
Picture eight racers balanced on the eight-metre start hill at Milton BMX: elbows up, goggles down, cranks set level. A heartbeat’s silence, then the gate slams and twenty-inch wheels explode down the ramp in a blur of neon jerseys and chrome chains. Provincial titles start here, in shoulder-to-shoulder sprints that last barely thirty-five seconds but feel like freefall. The bikes are single-speed missiles: hydro-formed aluminum or carbon frames, 44/16 gearing, no brakes, and knobby tyres barely wider than a toonie, built to survive case-landing the final step-up as much as to win the holeshot. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
BMX Provincial Series, Milton
Gravel Giants – Blue Mountains Gravel Fondo, Thornbury, June 14
At dawn on Georgian Bay, 400 riders roll over the start mat and straight into a flat 10 km paceline, a courteous warm-up before the gravel shows its teeth. South of Thornbury the road tilts up, 7 km of chip-seal and limestone climbing that burns the quads and blows the pack to pieces. By the time racers crest the Beaver Valley escarpment they’re coated in dust, focused on staying upright over washboard descents that rattle bottle cages loose. Bikes here are the Swiss-army knives of cycling: flared-bar rigs with 45 mm tread, tubeless sealant hissing if a shard of limestone pierces a sidewall, and dropper posts ready for the single-track sneak attack at kilometre 69. Finishers rocket back to the harbour with 4 300 ft of climbing in their legs and cider foam on their lips.
Blue Mountains Gravel Fondo
Cross-Country Carnage – MTB O-Cup #3, Boler Mountain, June 14-15
Swap dust for pine-needle loam and the soundtrack of gravel slashes to one of chain-slap and cheering kids leaning through safety tape. London’s Boler Mountain strings together a 5 km roller-coaster of bermed descents and granite-studded punch-ups. Elite men crank out sub-17-minute laps on 120 mm full-suspension bikes, frames barely over 10 kg, dropper posts flicked like triggers before every rock garden. Watching the women’s start is pure theatre: pedals clip with a click-click volley, someone attacks the first climb, and suddenly the forest resonates with laboured breathing and squealing brakes. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
MTB O-Cup #3, Boler Mountain
Little Italy Goes Supersonic – Preston Street Criterium, Ottawa, June 15
By mid-afternoon the smell of espresso mingles with chain lube as the 51st Preston Street Crit launches in Ottawa’s Little Italy. The course is tight: four corners, zero margin for error. Deep-section carbon wheels whoosh inches from patio fences; spectators duck as the peloton gusts past at 50 km/h. Road bikes here are scalpel-sharp: 6.8 kg frames, 28 mm tubeless slicks inflated to just under 80 psi for grip on hot pavement, and 54-tooth chainrings that let sprinters hit 1 500 watts in the final dash to the finish line. One bobble, one pedal strike, and a dozen riders could cartwheel into the barriers, but the best carve every apex with millimetre-perfect precision. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
Preston Street Criterium
North Shore Wild – MTB O-Cup #4, Hiawatha Highlands, June 28-29
Two weeks later the circus moves north to Sault Ste. Marie, where the Canadian Shield muscles up through the pine floor. Hiawatha’s new flow-trail drops like a waterslide, giant berms spitting racers onto granite shelves slick with moss. XC bikes flick between trail and race mode: Fox 34 forks stiffen for rock rolls, then open wide for root gardens that have shattered dreams since this course debuted. The junior women’s podium goes to whoever nails the Red Pine descent without dabbing; the U23 men leave tyre-rub scars on boulders the size of moose. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
MTB O-Cup #4, Hiawatha Highlands
Airfield Showdown – Ontario Cup Road #5, Dunnville Crit, July 26
Imagine racing a criterium on an abandoned runway wide enough for a Boeing 737. That’s Dunnville Air Park: 2.2 km of billiard-table tarmac, 10 sweeping corners, and a crosswind that hammers riders into a single double-file serpent. Everyone brings carbon wheels tall as pizza boxes and hides behind aero helmets; the smart teams unleash their sprinter only after the final corner spits the field onto three-lane-wide pavement. Last year’s average speed? 48 km/h. This year? Bet on faster, because the O-Cup overall title is on the line, and nobody saves watts for the drive home. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
Ontario Cup Road #5, Dunnville Crit
Triple-Threat Weekend – Kingston Stage Race, July 4-6
The Limestone City cooks up a three-day suffer-fest: a Friday evening hill-climb that feels like riding up a brick wall, a Saturday road race across wind-whipped cornfields, and a Sunday downtown criterium through Kingston’s lakefront breeze. Bikes morph with the stages: climbing frames under 7 kg for Day 1; mid-depth aero wheels and 11-34 cassettes for Day 2’s punchy rollers; fully aero set-ups with 56-tooth chainrings for the crit finale. Whoever stands tallest on Sunday has out-ridden gravity, crosswinds, and lactic acid in equal measure. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
Kingston Stage Race
Highlands Heartbreaker – MTB Provincial Championships, Horseshoe Resort, Aug 15-17
Provincial titles are forged in the furnace of Horseshoe’s lift-access terrain. The XCO lap dives off the start ramp into a rock chute that sends water-bottle cages skittering across shale. Later, racers blast across a ski slope so steep they throw the saddle forward and shove body weight onto the front tyre just to keep from looping out. On Sunday the short-track final is pure chaos: eight-minute heats, elbows grazing tree trunks, spectators banging cowbells so loud you feel it in your ribcage. The bikes? Pure World Cup pedigree, 120 mm travel set to “firm,” 2.35″ tyres at 20 psi, and chains waxed within an inch of invisibility. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
MTB Provincial Championships, Horseshoe Resort
Crown Jewel of Asphalt – Road Provincial Championships, Aug 22-24
Northumberland County becomes a three-day cycling crucible. Friday’s individual time trial on Shelter Valley Road is a 20 km out-and-back drag race where discs hum like jet engines and riders chase their own heartbeat in aero-tunnel silence. Saturday resurrects Cobourg’s classic Tom Jehlicka crit, 2.5 km of billiard-smooth blacktop, three open corners, average speeds north of 50 km/h. Sunday’s road race is the grand finale: undulating lakeshore, a punchy climb through apple orchards, and a finishing straight framed by cheering crowds. The bikes swap skinsuits with the stages, solid rear discs and 58 mm front wheels for the TT; all-round aero rigs for the crit; lighter climbing set-ups with 32 mm rubber to tame rural chip-seal for the road race. Champions leave town wearing freshly minted maple-leaf jerseys and legs throbbing like drumheads. (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
Road Provincial Championships
Racing the Clock—and Each Other
Behind every podium photo lie thousands of training kilometres and gear choices obsessively dialled to the watt: (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
- Power Meters & Data – Even junior racers dissect races with phone apps, analysing cadence spikes and aero-drag savings measured in single joules.
- Tubeless & Tech – Sealant has virtually banished flats in gravel and XC; road racers now slam 28 mm tyres to 70 psi for corner-gripping suppleness once unimaginable.
- Women’s Field Boom – Female start-lists now match men’s at O-Cups; watch for fierce battles between emerging U23 stars and veteran national-team pros.
- Para-Cycling Integration – From BMX to road provincials, para categories share the same start-line nerves, proving speed has no single template.
Training for the Big Race
Your Ticket to the Show
Want in? Start with a one-day permit for a fondo; step up to an Ontario Cycling Citizen Permit when the race bug bites harder. Many venues, Milton BMX on Thursday practice nights, Horseshoe’s Wednesday XC series, open their courses for pre-rides. Volunteer as a marshal and you’ll learn race flow while pocketing insider tips (and maybe a free slice of post-race pizza). (Bike Month Bicycle Racing)
The Starting Line
Because here’s the truth: Bike Month is the ignition spark, but Ontario’s engine of racing roars well into harvest season. Somewhere between a BMX gate in Milton and a screaming descent at Horseshoe your own finish-line moment is waiting. Clip in and chase it, summer is young, the roads are hot, and the podium is only a few thousand heart-beats away.
The Finish
NOTE: Disclaimer: Event dates, times, and activities can change without notice. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, please verify all details directly on each event’s official website and social media channels before making plans.
