Major cycling event coming to North Bay

After more than two years with limited sport tourism events, a major cycling event is coming to North Bay this summer.

Cycle North Bay will see more than 500 cyclists come to town to compete in various events, including road races through the downtown, mountain bike races as well as paracycling events.

"North Bay has just the perfect balance of capacity and also willingness, and proximity," said Greg Rawson, president of Performance Driven Events, who's in charge of the events planned for North Bay.

"It's a great drive from the GTA being that the high-performance aspect of the event and weekend is pulling from that area. It's not too far and it's not too close."

It's also a chance for North Bay to welcome close to 2,000 people for the weekend, including competitors and spectators.

"We need all these things back again," said Larry Tougas of Tourism North Bay.

"Hotels can get back to normal, and restaurants and things like that. We're ahead of the curve, here in North Bay we're working really, really hard to host these events and be a good ambassador for sports tourism."

Officials told CTV News there are plans to continue hosting the event in North Bay for many summers to come.