WHISTLER (NEWS1130) – Give yourself a lot of extra time if you’re heading up to Whistler or coming off a ferry today.

Seven-thousand cyclists are traveling on the Sea to Sky Highway for the Whistler GranFondo.

There will be a lot of slowdowns for drivers throughout the day with intermittent lane restrictions. But organizer Kevin Thomson says the headaches to local businesses are well worth it.

“Last year we had 16 per cent of people from out of province and this year it’s 22 per cent,” explains Thomson. “Of course, you have to add in all the people coming from Prince George or the Okanagan or Vancouver Island. So the economic impact is significant. Over the three years, it would exceed $20-million.”

Organizers have capped the number of riders at 7,000 due to the narrowness of the Sea to Sky, but Thomson believes that number could potentially increase next year.

“I think that the appetite for people to come from all around the world to travel the Sea to Sky corridor is high and we think that it is a growing interest. We’d love to build it up to as big as it can be.”

This event is already the largest GranFondo in Canada.

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