Cycling’s popularity in this country is seemingly at an all-time high.
A trend begun in Beijing, where Great Britain won 14 medals (eight gold), and which continued on the road with the success of Mark Cavendish and Team Sky, now looks set to continue after a summer of unprecedented success for British cycling.
Bradley Wiggins’ historic Tour de France victory, and a medal haul at the London Games almost equal to that of Beijing, despite changes to the programme and a one-rider per nation limit to each event, has propelled the sport to new heights.
Figures released by the BBC revealed that one in two British viewers tuned in for the climax of the men’s road race, while nearly seven million watched the men’s time trial on BBC One or the ‘red button’.
The challenge now is to build on that post-Olympic euphoria, rather than allowing it to dissipate. Happily, the racing and commercial calendars between now and year’s end are filled with events to do just that.
On Saturday, Team Sky will attempt to pick up where they left off with their assualt on the season’s Grand Tours. A British cyclist will again be at the heart of the action as Chris Froome, runner up at the Tour and bronze medalist in the Olympic time trial, takes on the duties of team leader in a battle with no lesser talent than the returning Alberto Contador.
In less than a fortnight, the Paralympic Games begins in London and Great Britain’s para-cyclists are expected to be at the sharp end. Team GB will field six world champions after a successful world championships in Los Angeles in Februrary. We’ll be taking an in-depth look at the Paralympic line-up as the event draws closer.
The final day of the Paralympics is the opening day of the Tour of Britain, an eight stage race just shy of 1,350 kilometres, packed with short, brutal, Classics-style climbs, and billed as the toughest yet.
Of the 16 teams, taking part in the race, six will be from cycling’s elite WorldTour, including Britain’s Team Sky, and Garmin-Sharp, Orica-GreenEdge, Liquigas-Cannondale, Euskaltel-Euskadi, and Vacansoleil-DCM.
Euskaltel-Euskadi recently announced that 2008 Olympic road race champion, Samuel Sanchez, winner this year of the Tour of the Basque Country, and a top 10 finisher in two of the Ardennes Classics on which much of the Tour of Britain’s route is said to be modeled upon, will lead their Tour of Britain line-up.
Race director, Mick Bennett, told a press conference in London last week that Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish will ride, although Team Sky has yet to announce its roster for the race.
At least three of the six British teams competing in the UCI EuropeTour, will compete, with the challenge from home nation competitors from cycling’s second tier likely to be spearheaded by Endura Racing.
At the team’s unveiling at the London Bike Show in January, general manager, Brian Smith, announced his intention to win the race. In Jon Tiernan-Locke, winner of the King of the Mountains classification last year while riding for Rapha Condor Sharp, another British team set to contest this year’s race, he might have a rider capable of doing so.
Tiernan-Locke’s most recent victory came in the Tour Alsace, a UCI 2.2 race littered with climbs.
On September 27, Sir Chris Hoy will open The Cycle Show at the NEC in Birmingham. Some 205 exhibitors are expected this year and organisers are expecting some 24,000 visitors through the door this year, an expeccted increase of more than 4,700.
The same week, the national track championships in Manchester will see many of the stars of the Olympic Games return to the boards. Riders with titles to defend include Jess Varnish, Steven Burke, Jo Rowsell, and Peter Kennaugh.
The nation’s track stars will pull on their Team GB skin suits for the first time since the Olympic Games at the second round of the UCI Track World Cup, the first meeting to be held at the new Sir Chris Hoy velodrome in Glasgow, the venue that will take centre stage in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
And finally, there’s the small matter of the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, a prize that should rightly be awarded to Wiggins now owing to the magnitude of his achievement in France, but for which he will face close competition from Britain’s outstanding Olympians, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis, and Ben Ainslie.
Great Britain’s cyclists arrived at London 2012 with everything to lose. By topping the cycling medal table at a home Games, the sport has gained in popularity. With the nation’s para-cyclists, winners of 17 gold medals at Beijing, poised to swing into action, a national Tour packed with international talent and possibly the country’s two most successful road cyclists, securing a post-Olympic legacy for the sport, at least in the short-term, looks like a given.
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