Britain Gears Up For A Great Weekend Of Cycling

24 June 2009

Above: Current National Road Race Champion Rob Hayles will be looking to defend his title this weekend

As the international cycling community begins the countdown to the Tour de France, cycling fans at home are in for a treat with four fantastic elite events taking place on their doorstep this weekend.

On 27-28 June, the Broadway BMX track in Cheddar, Somerset, will play host to Rounds 13 and 14 of the UEC European BMX Championships, attracting some of the biggest names in European BMX. Great Britain is fielding a strong team with Marcus Bloomfield leading out a youthful team of 17 riders, ten of whom are from British Cycling's Talent Team.

Also taking place this weekend are the National Elite Road Race Championships in Abergavenny, South Wales, with the women's race taking place on Saturday and the men competing on Sunday.

Current Olympic and World Champion Nicole Cooke will be looking to add her tenth British title to her name, but to do so she will need to see off 40 other competitors including the likes of Olympic Silver medallist Emma Pooley and Paralympic double Gold winner Sarah Storey, not to mention a whole host of younger riders such as Alex Greenfield, Lizzie Armitstead and Hannah Mayho.

The men's race on Sunday will see Team Halfords Bikehut rider Rob Hayles battle against 190 other riders to defend his title. With several Olympic medallists, including Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas, plus Mark Cavendish, the winner of four Tour de France stages in 2008, this will not be an easy feat.

Highlights from the BMX EUC European BMX Championships will be broadcast on 16 July on British Eurosport 2 at 2:30pm and British Eurosport 1 at 5:45pm. Highlights from the National Elite Road Race Championships will be broadcast on British Eurosport 1 on 4 July at 7pm (Men's Race) and on 5 July at 12:15am (Women's Race).

Meanwhile, Crow Hill in Hampshire sees a double-header weekend of mountain biking with round 4 of the British Mountain Bike Series on the Saturday and the English Marathon Championships on the Sunday. With a big event village and action from mid-morning both days, these are superb spectator events.

All the action from these events will also be covered live by British Cycling reporters on www.britishcycling.org.uk with race reports, results and images immediately available online.

Download: Press Release (Word doc 500kb)

Contact: abbyburton@britishcycling.org.uk