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York summer of cycling marks one year to go to Tour de FranceYork (copyright freefotouk via Flickr)

York summer of cycling marks one year to go to Tour de France

Circuit races, Sky Rides and cycling festival in packed cycling calendar
by John Stevenson
Mon, Jul 08, 2013 12:29
1

The city of York is promoting a summer celebration of cycling as the city counts down to the 2014 opening stages of the Tour de France.

York will host the start of stage 2 of the 2014 Tour, which then takes a hilly route through the Pennines to Sheffield. This summer, York hosts several major cycling events and a program of participation rides including Sky Rides and Breeze women-only rides.

On July 21, York sees the British Cycling National Circuit Race Championships in the centre of the historic city.

In the afternoon of July 21, four special Sky Ride Local events will take residents and families into the city centre where they will get the chance to find out what it’s like to zoom round a city centre race circuit. The rides will start with a gentle pootle into the city then all riders will take part in a lap of the elite route alongside British Cycling Ride Leaders.

There are only 100 places available in total, 25 per ride, so York residents should get along to the York Sky Ride Local page for more details.

July 21 is also the final day of the Tour de France, so big screens around the city will show the finish on the Champs Elysées in Paris.

There’s a full program of SkyRide Local events through the summer, plus several larger rides.

On September 1, the Heart of York Bike Ride offers two routes, 22-mile and a 40-mile ride which both take in York and the surrounding area. The event is organised by British Heart Foundation and the Mending Broken Hearts Appeal.

Over the weekend of September 14 and 15 Rowntree Park, York hosts the York Festival of Cycling. This free festival is geared at promoting cycling as a fun and sustainable mode of transport around York.

Alongside the festival, York will be taken over by cyclists on September 14 for the York Sky Ride. The route guides riders through the centre of York, taking in iconic landmarks including York Minster and Clifford’s Tower. The route will be open from 10.30am to 4.00pm and there will be free, fun activities at the two activation areas, Rowntree Park and the York Eye.

City of York
British Cycling National Circuit Race Championships
'sky ride'
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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