Velothon Wales closed road sportive + UCI road race coming to Cardiff in 2015

There's a lot of sportives you can do these days, but this one looks like it'll be popular: Velothon Wales offers you a 120km route through South Wales on closed roads, and when you're done you get to hang around and watch the Pros have a go in a UCI-sanctioned road race on the same roads. The date of the event is set fo 14 June 2015.

There are a number of Velothon events around the world organised into a series, the Velothon Majors. There are currently rides in Vienna, Berlin and Philadelphia with the Berlin Velothon attracting 14,000 participants and some big names too: Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel have both won the Pro race in Germany.

The Welsh event has a capacity of 10,000 for the sportive; there's a shorter and less hilly 50km loop or the signature 120km ride that takes in Caerphilly Mountain and the Tumble, where there will be a timed King of the Mountains challenge. The Pros will do essentialy the same course but with multiple laps of a Tumble/Caerphilly loop before returning to Cardiff.

Velothon Wales’ Race Director Roland Hofer said: “We know there is a huge appetite for world-class cycling events, particularly in light of Ride London where over 80,000 people entered the ballot for the 2014 event.

“Having worked as Race Director for Velothon Berlin since 2009, I am hugely excited to be part of the team that will be delivering Velothon Wales. Each year Velothon Berlin attracts a stellar elite field which, combined with thousands of participants taking on the exact same route, creates a truly memorable day of cycling. We are looking forward to Velothon Wales emulating its success in every respect.”  

Fancy it? It's £55 to enter (£40 for the 55km route), but if you're quick you can get 20% off that. There's currently a pre-registration window open on the Velothon Wales website: you can stick in your details and you'll be notified when booking is live. Use the code ROADCC to bag yourself a big discount. There are 2,000 discounted entries available which will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis when priority booking is open.

www.velothon-wales.co.uk