We have three lovely rides as part of this first Wallingford Festival of Cycling.The first is a 50 km Sportive. Starting in Historic Wallingford Market Place, taking in some lovely Chiltern scenes and Oxfordshire Villages and lanes and finishing on the historic Wallingford Bridge we promise a great ride. The route will be way marked and stewards will be a key crossings and route points. All finishers will get a certificate and the opportunity to ride in the Festival Parade later in the day leaving Sportive riders plenty of time to enjoy the various activities and racing events in the afternoon.

We also have two great mountain bike routes taking in the River Thames, Ridgeway and local paths in the Chilterns. We have a more family orientated 12 mile route and a more challenging 17 mile route. Both rides will start in Wallingford Market Square and finish on the historic Wallingford Bridge which is closed for the day.

All rides with have a refreshments stop and anyone who completes the rides will get a Certificate and a photo opportunity on Wallingford Bridge as they finish.

There is then the opportunity to enjoy the rest of the festival which includes some great town centre crit racing and also see an ITV Midsomer Murders Film crew in action - see the press release below.

Massive boost for Wallingford as Midsomer Murders film unit comes to town

The organisers of Wallingford Festival of Cycling and the production team of ITV’s hit series Midsomer Murders have agreed to work together to film an episode set around a cycling race in the midst of the community cycling events and British Cycling racing events on Sunday June 21^st. 

What Midsomer Murders Producer Phil Hunter had to say ...." I'm thrilled we are able to produce an episode of Midsomer Murders with elite cycling as the backdrop.  We are very excited about working with the Wallingford Festival of Cycling - I'm a keen cyclist myself, although I seem to spend more time on my Brompton than my road bike these days."

Organisers of the festival are now working with Oxfordshire County Council, South Oxfordshire District Council and Wallingford Town Council to deal with the large crowds now expected for the event especially as people attending might get on TV! This requires extra parking, stewards, food outlets, toilets and general logistics which festival organiser Tony Sefton said “It is a nice headache to have especially as we already have our brilliant Rugfest on the Friday/Saturday and our fabulous Carnival also on Saturday”.

Further details about what time the filming and events will take place and where people watch or where they can sign up as extras will be on the festival website www.wallingfordfestivalofcycling.co.uk in the coming weeks.