Etape Cymru Blog - Stuart Wilkinson
A couple of weeks ago, I was excited to see that Britain's second closed road
sportive will be held almost on my doorstep on 9th October. Luckily I had a few days off
after Easter, and used one of them to try out the proposed 100 mile Etape Cymru route.
Full Blog here>>>
Etape Cymru coming to North Wales
Posted: 20/04/11
Wales' very own answer to the Tour De France is coming to Wrexham and Denbighshire later this year.
Etape Cymru is a major closed road cycle competition that looks set to attract over 3,500 entrants.
Etape Cymru is a 100-mile route (including over 6000ft of climbing) of stunning scenery, which starts and finishes in Wrexham and passes through the Clwydian Range.
The event is being organised by K-Extreme Ltd and the route will take in several well-known climbs such as the Horseshoe Pass, The Shelf, The Garth and Worlds End.
BBC News reported: more>>>
The event is only the second fully closed road event within the UK and has the full support of the Wrexham Council, Denbighshire Council, Welsh Assembly Government and North Wales Tourism.
The event will be held on Sunday 09 October 2011 and there are also plans to extend it to three routes in order to cater for cyclists of all abilities.
The intention is to make is event one of the premier events of the cycling calendar and it is set to bring substantial economic benefits to the region.
The only other event in the UK has had an independent report stating that the economic benefit to the region was circa of £1.8m.
Etape Cymru is proud announce Tweekscycles.com as it's Title Sponsor. The event is also backed by a number of major sponsors, including Arriva, Hadlow Edwards, Kukri Sports, Welsh Cycling and British Cycling, who all believe the event has the potential to be one of the biggest events in the Welsh-sporting calendar.
Long distance ‘closed road' (‘Etapes') cycle events have been firmly established in Europe for many years with events attracting up to 8000 entrants.
In the UK, there is only one ‘closed road' event - Etape Caledonia - which attracts thousands of cyclists and places are snapped up within days.
Mike Turner is one of the organisers of the event and believes it has the potential to be a massive sporting event.
"With the success of British cycling at both the Olympic Games and Tour De France - there has been a real demand and increase for people looking to get involved in cycle challenges such as this," he said.
"Etape Cymru will see people from all over the UK coming to North Wales to take part. Anybody and everybody can take part, whether you're a seasoned pro or a casual cyclist.
"We've been talking to some major sponsors and they all believe this event has huge potential.
"We want to make a real occasion of it. As well as the cycling, we hope to have bands playing, entertainment for the children so that it is an event that everyone will remember.
Registration for Etape Cymru is now open. The individual entry price is £65, with British Cycling Members getting a special discount of £53. Each entrant will receive a free British Cycling Ride membership (worth £24), a gilet (rrp £20), a Tweeks Cycles multi-tool (rrp £5.99) plus other goodies
You can register and find out more information about the event online at www.etape-cymru.co.uk.
