June 27-29
October 6-12


Hamilton has been called the Ambitious Little City, originally a cutting remark from the Globe and Mail but was turned positive by the local paper and shortened to The Ambitious City. No stranger to racing, Hamilton held the first automobile race in Canada in 1904. The City of Steel's (Hamilton is Canada's top steel producer) current ambitious endeavour is a race of a different kind though the speeds will be greater than those of the first automobile competition.
The Cycling Championships begin on Main Street, also known as Highway 8. Highway 8 at one time was the main road from Niagara Falls through Hamilton to the western Ontario town of Goderich. It is at it's busiest through the downtown area of Hamilton where 55,000 cars pass this spot daily travelling in the opposite direction of the race. The Start/Finish Line is sandwiched between the white marbled City Hall built in 1960 and the Ron Joyce Performing Arts Centre at Hamilton Place. Joyce a former beat cop with the Hamilton Police Department is the founder of the coffee and doughnut empire Tim Hortons. Also backing onto the most important area of the race is one of Canada's most respected collections of art at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. It is the third largest gallery in Ontario behind the National Gallery in Ottawa and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

Traveling west, against the usual flow of traffic on this one-way street the race takes a slight uphill run past Hess Village site of a vibrant nightlife and numerous patios. Within two city blocks there are over 20 bars and restaurants. The riders then take a sharp left and first head down Queen Street before heading up the hill. They will pass the Italian Vice Consulate which serves the significant Italian population in Hamilton. After a long straight run the first significant challenge arises, the Escarpment and Beckett Drive.

Locals know Beckett Drive as the Queen Street Hill and it is one of 9 accesses up 'the mountain' in the city, with many more throughout the region. While some will chuckle at the term 'mountain' to describe the rise of 330 feet of limestone, it is a term that all Hamiltonians embrace. It isn't just a mountain it's 'The Mountain'. Geologists have determined that the escarpment is really an ancient coastline from a massive lake they dubbed Iroquois. Lake Ontario is a shadow of that former lake. Frederick Beckett built the beginnings of this stretch of the course however his road switched back about halfway up today's road and terminated at the top of the escarpment where the cyclists will head down at James Mountain Road. That road has now become a part of the Bruce Trail, an 800-kilometre trail with 200 kilometres of side trails running from Niagara Falls to Tobermory. Frederick Beckett, whose farm occupied most of the land now taken up by Hillfield Strathallan and Mohawk College, had an original vision of connecting all the City's mountain access points. At the top of the hill where the road turns left a set of stairs allows pedestrians and cyclists free access between the upper and lower city. These stairs are one of four such pedestrian friendly ways to get to the top of the mountain...or the bottom depending on your destination.

Along Scenic Drive the Riders have a mostly flat curving stretch of road that begins with a crossing of Chedoke Falls, one of more than 31 precipices where water drains over the escarpment heading for Lake Ontario. Further along they will ride throughout the grounds of Chedoke Hospital. When tuberculosis was at epidemic proportions in the early part of the last century this spot was picked for patients all over Ontario to recover and be treated. The site was chosen for its temperate climate and fresh air. As the riders come to the portion of the road that turns left to head south (yes in Hamilton the water is North and the hill is south) they pass the Chedoke Radial Trail. This multi use trail used to be one of four electric train lines that ran from the downtown to outlying communities. The train stopped running in the 1931 as the automobile became the transportation of choice and sat dormant until the City turned it into one of the many converted rail trails in the region. A gradual climb from that turn puts the riders onto Mohawk Road a former trail for Native guides and tribes.

Along the shared roadway the riders will have ample time to gain ground or create a lead before getting back to the brink of the mountain. They'll pass Mohawk College, the rapidly growing post secondary institution that was built in the late sixties. Also on the way they will pass the summer 'cottage' of Issac Buchannan. The Auchmar Estate is a historical treasure that is currently being used to film an American TV show for NBC called Strange Days at Blake Hosley High. A Harry Potter type show involving the super-natural, a strange fate for a one time monastery and convent.
Several north/south arteries in Hamilton have counterparts on the mountain that simply put Upper in front of their names. Upper James is a tourist's nightmare, as it does not directly connect to James Street. However, on a map it runs in a straight line. Many locals have been stopped by travelers trying to figure out how they get to the Upper portion of a downtown street.
That brings us to the edge of the mountain. At one time a railway incline shuttled people back and forth from top to bottom on this spot. The progress of road building made it obsolete. Here is where the cyclists will reach top speeds going down the Claremont access. This six-lane highway was built to ease central city traffic congestion to the central mountain as the majority of people who worked in the Steel mills chose this way to and from work. With the dwindling need for labour in the mills the road has become a spacious luxury for those who drive it. It connects Upper James (highway 6) and Victoria Avenue and Wellington St. to Upper James.
Coming back up the Claremont the competitors will pass Southam Park named for the publisher William Southam who founded The Hamilton Spectator and subsequently developed the Southam Newspaper chain. On this site stood a hotel called the Mountain View with a commanding view of the city easily accessed by either incline or the James Mountain Road. The building fell into disrepair and was demolished, as was the incline that took people to it. This is where the riders will end up as they make a U-Turn to take the shortest route down the mountain. Formerly a cart path for horses this is the most direct way to get from the downtown to the top of the city. The Scout House, home to the regions considerable scouting population, makes its home just off this access as the riders find themselves deposited on James Street at St. Joesph's Hospital. Across from the health care facility reside a multitude of large homes once occupied by the wealthiest of Hamilton's citizens. Most are now multi family dwellings and apartments. James Street is one of the many downtown streets that bear the names of George Hamilton's family. Hamilton was a politician/developer who saw potential in what was once a malaria filled swamp. Many of the downtown streets are named after his relatives. In the 1970's a move to put in a monorail up the escarpment was supposed to come right up James Street. Lawyers for residents blocked the monorail but the street became largely commercial anyway.
Once again the bikes head down a road against the normal flow of traffic. Hamilton moved to a one-way street traffic system in 1956 and the first streets to change were King, Main, James, John, Wellington, Victoria and Queen, all used in the championships. They will pass the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts and under the rail tracks at the new GO train station. As the riders turn to head for the finish line from James to Main they will pass one of Hamilton's most architecturally historic corners. On the South East corner is the Hamilton Club, a member-only facility for the movers and shakers in politics and industry for over a hundred years. On the North East corner is the old Canadian Assurance Building demonstrating roman-esque columns in its architecture, the same can be said of the historic Bank of Montreal building on the South West corner. And on the North West corner is one of Canada's first skyscrapers the Pigott building built in 1929 for a million dollars in the Art Deco Gothic Revival style.

And while cyclists have been enjoying the roads up and down the escarpment Hamiltonians have been enjoying the fact that they were able to offer a UN designated World Biosphere (the Niagara Escarpment) as a backdrop to the National and World Cycling Championships.

Researched by Todd Crocker
References to the Hamilton Public Library Special Collections Department