Fraser Valley Canada Day cycling tour trims back

Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Riders took a break during the 2025 Lower Mainland Maple Leaf Populaire. This year, the B.C. Randonneurs Cycling Club will mark Canada Day with a scaled-down, members-only “non-competition social ride,” starting and ending in Langley’s Walnut Grove. (Special to Langley Advance Times)

B.C. Randonneurs Cycling Club will mark the 159th anniversary of Canada Day by holding a members-only 159 km. “non-competition social ride” starting and ending in Langley’s Walnut Grove. (Special to LAngley Advance Times)

Every year, the Lower Mainland Maple Leaf Populaire bike ride gets a little longer, adding one kilomtre for every year of the Canadian dream.

On Canada Day, July 1, 100 cyclists will mark Canada’s 159th birthday by riding the same number of kilometres on a route that begins and ends in Langley’s Walnut Grove.

It will be a scaled-down, members only version of the annual event, organized by volunteers from the B.C. Randonneurs Cycling Club.

Randonneurs Cycling Club secretary Anna Bonga explained the event is being done as a club ride, and not as a public one.

“We are not running it in the format as it was run in the past,” Bonga told the Langley Advance Times.

“It just got too onerous to run, and the volunteers were burnt out. It is open to any club members, and anyone can join the club [if they want to take part].”

Registration, online at https://database.randonneurs.bc.ca/registration/member costs $20 for the annual membership, plus the event participation fee of $20 for a total of $40.

“We may pick it up again in the future, but we’re taking a bit of a rest,” Bonga added.

Beginning in 2000 with 70 riders, the long0pditance Maple Leaf grew over the years, with as many as 400 signing up.

This year, the numbers of riders was capped at 100.

Unlike the usual Canada Day Populaire in the past, “this is an introductory ride to randonneuring which is long-distance unsupported endurance cycling,” the club web page notes.

“Riders are responsible for their own food/water supply arrangement.”

Described on the club website as a “non-competition, social ride in the scenic Fraser Valley around Derby Reach, Matsqui Village, Yarrow and Birchwood Dairy in Abbotsford.

As before, it will start in at the Walnut Grove community center parking lot but the finish has been moved to a nearby coffee shop.

In the cycling world, randonneuring is a non-competitive long-distance cycling discipline which originates from the French verb randonner, which means “to take a long ramble, hike, or tour.”

Riders cannot receive support, except at the designated control points, so each rider must be prepared for mechanical mishaps and changes in weather.

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