Four different tours were offered: A 20 mile tour; a 37 mile tour; a 40 mile tour; and a 58 mile challenge. The purpose of the ride is to raise money and awareness for Chautauqua Lake.

Michelle Turne, vice president of marketing for the county Industrial Development Agency, spoke about the importance of the tour for the region.

“We are doing this event as a way to bring tourism — this is an event that we started three years ago — just to bring some tourism to the area and highlight everything that Chautauqua County has to offer,” Turner said. “And at the same time raise some money for some good charities.”

Participants received a medal upon completing the tour Saturday. Early registration showed about 71 percent of participants came from outside Chautauqua County.

“We were thrilled with that because that’s what we set out to do,” Turner said. “And they were coming from Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Ohio (and) Canada, so that was really cool.”

This year’s turnout was estimated to be around 515 riders, compared to 340 participants last year. “It really helps us highlight Chautauqua County,” Turner said.

Turner said the 20-mile tour is more popular because riders get to take the ferry across Chautauqua Lake once they reach Bemus Point.

One rider that participated in the tour of Chautauqua Lake was Maura Farrell who participated in the 20-mile ride.

“It was great,” Farrell said. “It was really fun to be out with so many bikes going around the lake, we’ve biked the lake a lot for our own fun and exercise, but it was really nice to see so many bikers.”

Although Farrell has been around Chautauqua Lake on a bike before, this was the first time she participated in the Gran Fondo tour.

“What we noticed is that it was really well organized,” Farrell explained. “You know, the signage was great, the sendoff was great [and] there were photographers at all the different stops…it just seemed like a really well run event and it seems like there’s a lot of community support from the businesses, which is great.”

The event featured a slew of sponsors and was hosted by Web’s Captain’s Table, where the tour started and ended. At the after-race celebration, music was provided by The Refuge and performances by Angel Rodriguez.

Kevin Sanvidge, CEO of the IDA, said the tour has progressed over the short three years of its existence. He also emphasized the direct correlation to economic growth to the Chautauqua area. He pointed to the fact that the people visiting from out of town would have to pay for hotels, food and transportation, which in theory would be directly putting money into Chautauqua County.

“It’s gotten bigger and bigger each year, over 500 participants today. Just over three years ago this was a concept,” Sanvidge said.

Inspired by the Utica Boilermaker 15K, a similar event, Sanvidge wanted to bring something like that to Chautauqua County. While driving back form Utica he thought about incorporating a bicycle style event to showcase the area. At first, there was resistance to Sanvidge’s idea but eventually it seemed more plausible to him and his partners.

The Gran Fondo is an Old Italian tradition that encompassed families going on bike rides after church and meeting other families at the park. Sanvidge said that it had recently become popular in the country about 30 years ago and thought that it would be the perfect fit and theme for Chautauqua County as way to highlight the region.

“It’s really growing,” Sanvidge said. “Someday it’ll be the size of the boiler maker.”