A bike race that will be coming through Cochrane on September 2, will see a temporary closure of Highway 1A and Highway 22.

Tour of Alberta presented by ATB will be passing through Cochrane on the 2nd with cyclists en route to Olds.

The Tour of Alberta is an invitational only, professional cycling event seeing riders who just competed in Rio and Tour de France (6 weeks ago).

104 cyclists will take part in the event which is televised around the world, viewership numbers are huge overseas in Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Jeff Corbett, VP of Technical Operations says while he understands the frustration motorists may have, he is hoping majority of community members will support and cheer riders on.

"We've had a number of folks in Cochrane already trying to spread the word and generate support. There has been a group that is trying to recruit fans to come out to the big hill and wanted everybody in the crowd to wear cowboy hats and give a big 'Cochrane welcome'".

Riders are expected in town anywhere from 2:10 pm until 2:30 pm impacting traffic north/south Highway 22 briefly, with the major impact being east/west on Highway 1A.

"We are going to be travelling on 1A headed west to east, so 1A will be the largest impact. We move through pretty fast, it's not going to be traffic Armageddon.  22 north and south where it crosses 1A will only be stopped while the race is actually coming through. Our race caravan package coming through town tip to tail is about 10 minutes long. North and south 22 can probably expect a closure of about 15 minutes. 1A east of 22 we'll have to close it a little bit early to let some traffic bleed off from Glen Eagles down to 22, so that closure will probably be more like 20-25 minutes. The larger impact will be 1A west of town, we'll have to stop the flow of traffic west early enough so that traffic can bleed off. So traffic headed west should expect a closure of about 45 minutes."

Traffic is allowed to flow behind the race, but Corbett suggests if you can detour, do so.

"You are coming right through where people live, where people work, where people go to school, so no matter what there's always going to be an element that is irritated by the event but there is really nothing we can do about it."

Corbett adds the best place to view the race will be near the top of Glen Eagles and support is being rallied.

"Generally just like you see on television when you see the Tour de France or any other large scale race, fans tend to congregate on the climbs and the big hills because the riders are going a little slower there, they're not just whipping by you in one second. I would expect a majority of the fans to probably be along the big hill, with the largest group right near the top near 1A and Glen Eagles."

Corbett adds the Tour of Alberta will attract thousands of viewers who will see our countryside and is hopeful community members will embrace the event.

"We just hope people realize the Tour of Alberta is a postcard, it's 10 plus hours of live television coverage of the gorgeous scenery of Alberta that goes out to the world. It's 10 hour promotional marketing video of Alberta to the entire world which is why Alberta tourism gets behind it."

Tour of Alberta kicks off in Lethbridge on September 1 and ends on September 5 in Edmonton.

You can find the map of closures here.