With the covid crisis now considered to be over, we are genuinely looking forward to a fantastic 10-year-anniversary edition of the Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival this year! The expected event week is 4 to 11 November 2023, as per tradition. However, please note these dates are officially still tentative and need to be approved by the regional authorities. The 2023 edition will be a special one, not only because we will be celebrating ten years, but also because it will - touch wood - be the first edition since the end of covid and therefore the first ‘normal’ edition in no fewer than four years. That is quite a long time, and as a consequence, today, we cannot yet determine what the full event programme in November will look like. Please understand that this may still take a few months. As usual, event registration is not expected to be launched before July.

It goes without saying that no efforts will be spared to make this year’s edition an outstanding one.

In the coming weeks we will be updating regularly via our WeChat channel (Nordic Ways) about what is happening, as well as here on the website and on our Granfondo Yunnan facebook page.

All official race videos of the 2022 edition of Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival are now also available via our Nordic Ways YouTube Channel. This year’s edition took place successfully despite tight covid mitigation efforts in four different cities of Yunnan Province: Chengjiang-Yuxi, Chuxiong, Dali and Lijiang. All four stages were held in glorious conditions,. typical of Yunnan in November.

The event was obviously held with China-based participants only this year. We are confident that in 2023, for the 10th anniversary edition, we can again expect many international riders taking the start again for a week long cycling adventure in Yunnan.

The 2022 edition of the Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival, better known internationally as Granfondo Yunnan, is a wrap. This year’s edition had to be reduced to four stages in four cities due to ongoing covid mitigation efforts in China. Registration was also capped at 600, which was nevertheless sold out in less than 24 hours. As covid cases have been on the rise in the mainland again, a “closed-loop management” was imposed on participants, essentially restricting social activities, which caused many to defer to 2023. However, the remaining peloton of about 400 riders had a fantastic week of cycling in Yuxi-Chengjiang, Chuxiong, Dali and Lijiang. The weather played ball and riders were greeted with sunshine every morning. Nordic Ways and the entire event management team of Granfondo Yunnan wishes to thank every single person who made the big effort of coming to our event this year. You are all our heroes, and your support, understanding and respect for the official regulations will ensure the event will be back in full swing next November 2023!

At last we are in a position to confirm the dates of the 8th edition of our Granfondo Yunnan Festival, the edition from last November that got postponed due to a surge of covid infections at the time. As of Monday, 28 March 500 lucky cyclists will ride in and around the cities of Chengjiang, Chuxiong, Dali and Lijiang, following the original programme that was designed and approved for last November. However, post-winter road construction works have forced us to make one relevant change: the Sky Ride in Lijiang needs to be shortened and rerouted. As a consequence, we will be riding up the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain coming straight from Lijiang City instead of via the backside to Maoniupung, which we did in the first years of our event as well.

As you undoubtedly are also aware, covid-19 infections have suddenly been rising in China and is forcing authorities to make tough decisions. Unfortunately, one of these decisions is that the 2021 Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival must be postponed to a later date to be confirmed. The Nordic Ways team in Kunming was informed of the decision last week on Wednesday, as announced on our social media channels immediately.

When we have more details on what’s next, we will inform all of you immediately.

In any case, rest assured there will be a refund or the option of moving your registration forward to the ‘postponed’ event.

We are as sad as you are, these are the decisions that are beyond our control.

We will meet again a bit later than planned, but we will for sure meet again soon!

Starting today and as last year, we offer cycling enthusiasts from China and all over the world the chance to explore exciting sections of previous races in Granfondo Yunnan’s history via Kinomap. Kinomap is a training app, also available in China without VPN, that hosts the world’s largest fully geolocated video sharing platform. Contrary to other similar training apps, you are watching real video footage of real places rather than avatars and computer graphics-based scenery. For all those people who will take part in the ‘real’ event in November, this Kinomap virtual challenge will also help you in your preparation for the event, as you will be riding and seeing parts or even the whole Chuxiong course beforehand!

Check out our new Granfondo Yunnan 2021 event jersey, which can be ordered now. This is a quality jersey by Jakroo, one of the best-known cycling apparel brands for a long time in China, and is offered to participants at a very good price.

Please contact Xinhan (Xiao Tan) for further details on sizes and prize.

Email: xinhan.tan@nordicways.com

Registration for the 8th edition of Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival is opening now at 3pm Beijing Time