Gran Fondo World Tour ® CEO explains what makes the series so Popular
Dani Buyo, CEO of Gran Fondo World Tour ®, a world circuit of cycling competitions, explains the philosophy of these events designed for cycling enthusiasts which has grown to 25 destinations worldwide
“We are not under Federation’s control, so we may adapt better to the necessary events supporting them to catch more international participants. Gran Fondo World Tour is amateur cycling and discovering tourism through sport events”.
Dani Buyo (Constantí, 1976) is responsible for Gran Fondo World Tour (GFWT), the first world circuit of cycling rallies, created in 2015. It includes events distributed across five continents that generate an individual ranking among participants. Buyo has extensive experience in the organization of sporting events and explains us in this interview his vision and the evolution of this sector in the outdoor sports world.
In 2015 I was destinated in a consulting project with Grandvaliraski resorts in Kazakhstan and I started to see that the cycling market was moving towards this very strong Gran Fondo concept. There were more events and I thought there was room for a private circuit so I started working on destinations and the franchise format as a business model.
Is Gran Fondo World Tour, above all, passion for cycling tourism?
It is passion for Gran Fondo culture and focused on amateur cycling tourism. We don’t run away from competition, because there is always competition in cycling tourism events, but we are much more focused on amateur cycling tourism and on the part of discovering tourism through these sporting events.
Besides, it is designed to know the world, you are in more than 25 destinations...
When the idea came up, we thought it had to be in five continents, and as many destinations as possible. We started with five destinations of friends or contacts who organized cycling events and, today, we are in 24 destinations in 17 different countries, because we repeat some of them like the United States, France, and Italy, with various events. Now, we have extended it with 15 more destinations and 13 more countries in gravel. We tried to look for maximum diversity, from the southernmost destination in Chile, with the gravel race in Karukinka Gravel Race, to a gravel race in Iceland, which is the northernmost. And from here we are looking at Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Korea or the United States, in addition to the traditional European destinations that we have most identified, such as the Dolomites in Italy. Without forgetting Africa, which is growing in number of events and in organizational quality and safety, as well as the fact that it is a good destination to travel to.
As you mentioned, you have also introduced Gravel races...
Three seasons ago we started with the gravel calendar, which is not a parallel calendar because we are integrating it into some of the races. In the end, in the ranking format, we give points to those who finish each of the races and, even if they finish last, they have points. We have put together the ranking because we believe that the trend is that gravel is here to stay, it is growing a lot, and it is where it is growing more in events and destinations. And, on the other hand, it allows us to reach places where we would not reach with the Gran Fondo Road Cycling, due to infrastructure limitations. Gravel is going to a very similar public and the similarities with road are very big and there are less and less skeptics in this aspect. I have not met anyone who has tried gravel and is not hooked.
The circuit does not follow the federative rules of the UCI, why?
We are a 100% private circuit, in the end we are under the umbrella of the Sports & Events department of Grandvalira-SAETDE, with whom we are partners. We do not look for the Federation because we do not believe in standardization or in the gags that the federations often put at the level of regulations and standards, precisely because each country and each organizer is a different reality. There are organizations that are smaller, there are others that are private companies, others are associations or cycling groups and many times they are stifled by economic requirements for being in a federative circuit, the requirements of regulations and to carry federation members and have expenses that force them a lot the budget. We believe more in listening to the client and knowing where they need more help, in the internationalization or in the organization of the event and offer these services without standardizing and evidently maintaining the name of the event, which is its tradition of many years and its sponsors, which is very difficult for them to find. And if I come federally to restrict this by saying that the sponsor is going to be this one because it is my global sponsor, I am limiting its capacity to generate resources at the local level.
Where do events stand after the pandemic?
2020 was a year of change and forced the sporting events and retail sectors to reinvent themselves. The retail sector has had a very strong spike in sales, because there has really been an increase in people accessing physical activity and buying equipment. If you talk to this sector, you can see that this has stabilized and is returning to logical figures. In the case of events, we are also returning to pre-pandemic figures in terms of volume of people participating in the events, because it was a very strong initial figure, but also in terms of quality. That is to say, we are looking for good services and a safe destination, well organized and an event where if I tell you that you can go to Rwanda, you can go and find an event with its own characteristics, because each country has its own idiosyncrasy, but with the minimum services. The truth is that they went up a lot, but the events are stabilizing again in numbers.
And will those participation numbers be recovered?
I am not sure if the pre-pandemic figures will be reached again in mass participation sporting events, because people have diversified and are looking for events with fewer participants where they value that the attention to the participant, even if it is more expensive, is better. In that respect I think people are looking to spend more to receive more attention.
What is the atmosphere among the participants in the GFWT races?
There is always a competitive factor obviously if the race has timed sections, but as a general rule you find a lot of camaraderie, a lot of groups of friends from cycling clubs, wherever the country, who go and do it as a challenge. They take their time at the refreshment posts and stop to hydrate, comment on the last climb, how it went...it gives this opportunity for socialization that is the key for an event to stabilize in the calendar and the person who comes to participate in an event is a prescriber and says: “hey come, because it is an event that is great, it is safe, I had fun and also you can do it with your friends and you meet people, at your pace”. This is the key to become your prescriber and repeat and ultimately build loyalty.
The GFWT also plays a crucial role in promoting cycling as a sustainable form of tourism and transport...
Sustainability is to promote a clean way of transport to travel, to discover territories, because, historically, the bicycle has always been associated with an ecofriendly way of traveling. We applaud and promote all those actions that an organizer can do to compensate, either with the carbon footprint or with acts of cleanup during the race. Also, in destinations where this awareness is not as clear, as it happens sometimes in Africa or Central Asia where this becomes secondary, many times I tell them “You can't throw this here”. We all have a certain responsibility, organizers and participants, and as Gran Fondo World Tour we do our part.