Following the recent announcement of the provisional race programme for the 2012 IG London Nocturne Event Director, James Pope, has commented on the omission of an elite women’s race.

Pope said: “We have always been 100% behind women’s cycling and have hosted a female elite criterium at the Nocturne for the last three years. The decision not to host a women’s elite criterium race at this year’s IG London Nocturne was based on a number of considerations, firstly that there is a National Series Race taking place the next day, in the north of the country.

“In previous years it has been a struggle to pull together enough female riders to make the race competitive, which we again feared would be tough should the event clash with National Series event as it did in 2011. We also have to consider that both events draw upon the same relatively small pool of riders and, after consultation with British Cycling; we needed to be realistic as to whether it’s possible for those riders to support both events within such a tight time frame.

“However, if the demand is there to justify both races we would be more than happy to reinstate the women’s elite criterium on to the programme. We need at least 50 riders to confirm that they intend to race so please email info@nocturneseries.com with your details (name, team, category etc).”