It’s just over a month since it finished, and the bods over at Bike Week have been busy collating, calculating and now celebrating as they release the news that in 2004 Bike Week had 55% more participants than the previous year.

Funded by the Department for Transport, Transport for London, the Northern Ireland Department for Regional Development, the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government, plus £25,000 from the cycle industry’s ‘Bike Hub’ levy fund, Bike Week’s events were mainly aimed at new or ‘occasional’ cyclists, reflecting Bike Week’s mission to ‘get more people cycling more often’. But there were plenty of options for regular or more serious cyclists to get involved, like the 48 bike-a-thons for Leukaemia Research, Bike Week’s national charity partner for 2004 and 2005. 

In all over 180,000 people took part in 1,406 local events run by 926 organisers. Interestingly, the largest category of event organisers was local authorities (236), followed by other employers (121) and cycle campaign groups (107).  

Plans are already afoot for next year with the diary dates to mark being
11-19 June. Although organisers are still waiting for government and cycle industry funding to be confirmed, if the success of this year is any barometer, it shouldn’t present much of a stumbling block. There’ll be more info as and when on their website.