Follow britishcycling.org.uk on

Coming Up: CDNW Youth Tour 2011

Posted: 5th April 2011 | Source: Cycling Development North West

With just over seven weeks to go until the fourth Cycling Development North West Youth Tour, entries have been flooding in from across Great Britain and further afield. Current numbers stand at 230 entries across all categories with riders entered from England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Belgium and the Netherlands. There are five stages across the three days and the race will take place from 28th-30th May 2011 at three fantastic venues across the North West of England.

Day one will see riders battle against the wind coming in from the Irish sea as they take to a challenging 2km circuit in Blackpool. Blackpool Council pull out all the stops to make this race happen including closing the circuit down to give the riders a real feel of racing on the roads. This circuit has a bit of everything from a short steep climb to a rolling descent and a flat fast finish. The riders will compete in a prologue time trial followed by a long kermesse style race that will test every ounce of the riders abilities.

Day two will take place at the popular Salt Ayre Leisure Centre in Lancaster. With support from Lancaster City Council the riders will take part in two crits through the day, in the past this circuit has seen some fantastic racing with exciting bunch sprints being the norm but occasionally a rider can break away and hold on to the finish.

The final day will be held at the UCLan Sports Arena. UCLan have been massive supporters of Cycling Development North West over the years and will be opening up their doors on the Bank Holiday Monday for the final stage of the race. In years gone by this is where riders still in with a shout of the winners jersey put the hammer down and try to claw their way back into the lead whilst the race leader tries to defend their advantage over the rest.

We are set for a great race to round 4 of the British Cycling National Youth Circuit series with National Champions taking to the line to try and compete for victory. In the Youth A boys the riders will have to battle against the Belgian National Team who come back to the race for the second year, along with the Czech National Team who raced last year but are still confirming arrangements for this year.

2011 will see a first in the girls category, the youth A and B girls had a fabulous race last year racing against each other and the feedback was very positive giving the riders a chance to race off in a big bunch. We have already had 56 entries combined for the Youth A and B girls this year including Team GRC Jan van Arckel and WRV de Pedelaars both of the Netherlands. Corrine Van Der Zijden of the GRC Jan van Arckel team was the winner of the recent Omloop Van Strijen which the British Cycling Talent Team attended so the British girls will have their work cut out to make the top step of the podium in 2011.

The race this year would not have been made possible without the fantastic support of Tile Cleaners Ltd, Graffiti Removal North Ltd, ARCO, Miche, UCLan, Blackpool Council and Lancaster City Council. Bio-racer are making the leaders jerseys for the race this year and they will be a hard fight by all the riders to get their hands on one of these stylish jerseys. Entries are open till the beginning of May but there are very limited places left in the Youth A boys race and that will be full very shortly. For all the race info please check out www.cdnw.org/nw_youth_tour.html or the twitter feed CDNWYouthTour.