Saturday morning you can enjoy the unique experience of the Cambridge Farmers Market beside the historic Cambridge City Hall at the corner of Dickson and Ainslie Streets.Cambridge Farnmers Market Adjacent to the market are the delicious pies and dumplings freshly baked by the volunteers at Wesley United Church. Two apple dumplings will get you up the first hill on the Tour de Grand. While you are at the market, take time to see the lobby of the Cambridge City Hall and its living wall of tropical plants.

The City Hall was the first City Hall in Canada to receive the Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

If you want to get in a warmup ride for the Tour de Grand, maps for all the routes for the Tour are on our website. If you are riding one of the longer routes,Saturday might be a good time to do the shorter rail trail or road rides. Remember these routes have some hard packed gravel sections.

If you want to explore some of the areas of Cambridge on your bicycle, the Cambridge cycling website www.cambridge.ca/cycling has maps of short neighbourhood routes. Scroll down to Neighbourhood cycling routes for details.

If you want to give the bike a rest before its big ride on Sunday, or if you want to ride off road, Cambridge has the most extensive hiking and biking trail system in all Waterloo Region including many trails along the Grand River, a designated Canadian Heritage River. Check out Trails and Cycling. You can download maps of the individual trails by clicking on the main map or on the trail names on the left side of the page.

If you want an overview of bike routes, bicycle friendly roads and trails in and around Cambridge, Google has the answer for you. Go to the Google homepage, type google maps Cambridge Ontario.

Select the first result Cambridge, ON. Zoom into the desired view. Go to the upper right of your screen and hover your mouse over the word Traffic. Get the full drop down menu which may require you to click on the downward arrow. Select Bicycling from the drop down menu and this will display Trails, Dedicated Lanes and Bicycle friendly roads. All courtesy of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo.

If you want to see the Dickson Hill Heritage District, an historic area of Cambridge with its turn of the century homes, visit www.cambridge.ca type Dickson Hill in the search box, hit Search, click on the first result Dickson Hill Heritage Conservation District Plan, then when the document comes up and under Related Documents, click on Dickson Hill Heritage Conservation District Plan and then scroll to the very end for a great map of the area. Probably a good idea to print off the map before you leave home. Definitely worth a walk.
After your walk and when you are back in Queens Square, visit the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and the Melville Café for some refreshments overlooking the Grand River. www.melvillecafe.ca

Bicycling Gear – need some last minute stuff for your ride, visit our cycling sponsors, Grand River Cycling, HUB Bicycle Shop, King Street Cycle, Ziggy’s Cycle and McPhails Cycle. The Useful Links page has direct links to all these stores.

The three business areas of Cambridge, Galt, Preston and Hespeler have excellent shopping, as well as the shopping areas along Hespeler Road.

Fitness – need a fitness workout before your Sunday ride, visit the YMCA at 250 Hespeler Road www.ymcacambridgekw.ca Drop in guests welcome. No fee for YMCA members.

Want to see Cambridge and the surrounding areas from a unique perspective, you can canoe sections of the Grand River. Rental canoes are available. Visit www.canoeingthegrand.com for rental information or www.grandriver.ca
for information on the river and canoe trips. If you don’t have a lot of time you can do a short trip from the park area just off Fountain Street and the bridge over the river down to River Bluffs Park. A bit more time would allow you to continue with a portage around the Parkhill Dam, through the downtown Cambridge area and then pull out at a small parking area just south of Cambridge on the left side immediately past a service station. This is also the start of the Cambridge – Paris Rail Trail.

Saturday from 12:00 noon until 2:00 p.m. come to Duncan McIntosh Arena and pre-register for the Cambridge Tour de Grand. If you have already registered you can pick up your T-shirts. If you haven’t registered, you can get registered at the early registration rates. Makes it easy for you on Sunday morning – just arrive and go riding.

Lots to do in Cambridge to keep you and your family busy, but if there is something else for which you want some specific information, please call 519-240-5325 or email [email protected] or [email protected].