“ACRE (Anti Closed Road Events) is radically changing its tactics and has devised a new strategy to thwart the staging of the Etape Caledonia cycle race that is controversially run in Highland Perthshire on 81 miles of traffic-free roads.

It is suspending protest for two years and launching a campaign aimed at ending Perth and Kinross Council’s support for the Etape Caledonia franchise after next year’s event has been completed, at which point the company’s agreement with the council is due to be renewed.

ACRE, which has the backing of more than 500 local supporters still resentful at the Council’s imposition of the race without genuine consultation, will actively support the introduction in 2012 of a new way of bringing recreational cycling to the area.

It will be on open roads and, significantly, it will be of benefit to the local community all the year round.

The change of tactics has been prompted by two factors. The highly unpopular decision of the council to give the Etape Caledonia organisation a five-year franchise, as well as tens of thousands of pound in subsidies, means that for this year and next year it is almost impossible to arrest the running of the race in its present form.

Of equal influence is last year’s sabotaging of the Etape Caledonia race when tacks were spread on sections of the route and hundreds of cyclists suffered punctures and some were hurt. ACRE affirmably played no part in this criminal act and condemned it outright, but the group is concerned that this year’s race will attract the focus of the whole of Scotland for all the wrong reasons.

It believes that the animosity and anger generated by the attack must be given a chance to fade. It has always argued that its battle is not with the cycling community but with Perth and Kinross Council and other authorities, including the police, who have unwisely given their backing for the road closures.

ACRE’s new strategy is therefore to replace the Etape Caledonia with a locally conceived and operated cycling event that solves nearly all the current race’s drawbacks. The new event will run all year round culminating during the Spring with a weekend, or week, of trials, festivities and cycling fun including off-road ventures. The key point is that like all other cycle trials in the UK it would always be on open roads.

ACRE believes this will reignite local support and interest, and bring back a shared enthusiasm for hosting cycling activity.

The crucial element in this plan is new technology. A company called SPORTident has developed a system to allow cyclists to test themselves around a route 365 days a year.

As with the Etape Caledonia race, cyclists carry an electronic tag that identifies them. Fixed detectors are permanently placed at certain points to record their time at the start and finish lines, and perhaps other places en route. Anyone at any time can get a tag, and compete when they like, on their own or with friends.

A timing card is employed with this system allowing the possibility of charging entrants a fee. After costs have been met, revenue could be divided between charities and the incipient Highland Perthshire Destination Management Organisation – a new tourist development body.

A significant complaint about the Etape Caledonia is that most participants stay just one night, and bring in little commercial benefit. ACRE alternative is that on one week, or one weekend, every year a proposed ‘Highland Perthshire Cycling Challenge’ would encourage bikers into the area to test themselves, meet other enthusiasts and, at leisure, explore the stunning scenery and local attractions.

The introduction of the technology would also make possible cyclists starting at any timing point and thus also spread the benefits to local enterprises around the route.

The difference with the Highland Perthshire Cycling Challenge is that participants would not have mass starts, in marked contrast to the Etape Caledonia where thousands go off over a brief period. The event could stretch over two or more days and – because it is on open roads – it would be possible for participants to stay anywhere they like in Highland Perthshire and not, as at present, be confined close to Pitlochry where the current race begins and ends.

Each year a route for the race would be chosen that avoided dangerous pinch points and narrow bends. Another possibility is that the start and finish points could be changed each year, bringing greater variety for participants, and the chance for other parts of Highland Perthshire to act as hosts.

ACRE has always objected to the unequal distribution of benefits and disbenefits of the current event. The same communities and businesses bear the inconvenience, disruption and financial penalties every year. Addressing these inequalities was supposed to be a pre-condition of the event continuing after the ‘trial’ in 2007.

That it continues is an affront to the basic principles of natural justice. It arises directly from the closed road format, a factor conveniently ignored by Perth and Kinross council. ACRE’s proposal would right this injustice.

The inspiration for ACRE’s proposal is the non-commercial Fred Whitton Challenge in the Lake District which has been running for the past decade. It covers over 112 miles on narrow, steep gradient but open roads and is marshalled by volunteers without subsidy.

Organised by The Lakes Road Club and friends, it raised £60K for charity last year. They have now adopted the Sportident idea and cyclists can take part in the trial at any time of year. See http:// fredwhittonchallenge.org.uk/.

Peter Hounam, spokesman for ACRE, said his group had no qualms about attempting to supplant the Etape Caledonia race:

“It baffles us why a multinational like IMG is apparently so determined to keep it going against such substantial opposition. It barely brings them in more than £200,000 in income, which for them is peanuts, and the cost of running the event absorbs a huge slice.

“IMG’s secret wish may be to greatly increase numbers, but there is little doubt it has reached, and probably exceeded, the size it is safe to run even on closed roads. You have to bear in mind it is no longer a trial event, as was intended. It it is a highly competitive mass cycle race, something we think is unlawful.

“We will argue that by 2012 Etape will have had its allotted stint, as promised secretly by P&K before we were ever consulted. It is now time for P&K to support local initiative rather a multinational concern based in the south of England.

“The attraction of our idea is that it will bring a steady flow of visitors into the area at all times of the year, something Perth and Kinross Council is fervently in favour of encouraging.

“We won’t be sorry to say goodbye to Etape Caledonia, and the truth is that big business has no place in an area when there is a better alternative being promoted on the doorstep through local initiative.”

Such a cycling challenge event would have the merit of introducing ‘market differentiation’ to widen the economic benefits. This could be achieved by routes being designated for different cycling groups on different days to take account of varying capabilities and motives for participation – e.g. those who are serious ‘course competitors’, rather than recreational, family or age-group cyclists etc.

In contrast to the closed road event that was hatched and rushed into place by the London based organisers and Perth and Kinross Council, ACRE is deliberately unveiling this alternative in plenty of time to permit broad consultation with all interested parties.

The group urges that its proposal be tested by consulting widely to ensure a proper, workable consensus. It is keen to encourage local people – together with authorities, agencies, cycling and other expert and commercial interests – to stage and develop the event as a viable and properly sustainable attraction.

Once running in such a manner, ACRE maintains that its work will have been achieved and its plan is to disband, as its stance towards the present event from the outset has been ‘Event Cyclists YES; Closed Roads NO’.”

For further information, contact Peter Hounam by email at [email protected]