The 2012 London IG Nocturne is less than a week away, with riders including Alex Dowsett, Matt Goss, and Sarah Storey scheduled to ride the elite criteriums for men and women.
This year’s event will be held this Saturday (June 9) and televised on Channel Four a week later.
Reflecting the explosion in the popularity of cycling in the City, a criterium race for firms in the Square Mile has been included in the programme for the first time.
Olly Stevens, one of the driving forces behind the Nocturne, and a passionate cyclist, will lead a five-man team entered by the event’s title sponsors, IG Markets, against eight other City firms.
“We wanted to give people who work in the City of London an opportunity to experience being a pro cyclist for the day,” he said.
“We’re hoping all to get round in one piece. It’s about enjoying it, really. You don’t get an opportunity to race in front of big crowds like this when you’re very much an amateur.”
Cycling’s growing popularity in the City has been driven by a combination of factors, he said, including Team GB’s triumphs at the Beijing Olympics, and the subsequent success on the road of riders like Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins.
“I think people are discovering it as a social sport, where you can go out riding with some friends and have a chat and enjoy yourself,” he added. “With a lot of sports, you don’t get that opportunity to just catch up with friends.”
“Once one of your friends does it, it grows. People now know enough people to be invited out to rides, and once they’ve been for a couple of rides, they get into it.
“It’s relatively easy to get in to; much easier than running. You don’t have to be particularly fit to go out for an hour on a flat road, and you can build into it,” he said.
He joked that IG’s team had been chosen from a “vague selection procedure” based on a London to Brighton ride attended by 60 of IG’s staff. The fastest riders up Ditchling Beacon were picked for the team.
Frances Jackson, 34, a software developer at IG, has been racing since he was 15, beginning his career with Becontree Wheelers and winning a team trial gold with Loughborough University while a student.
“I’ve ridden criteriums in the past, but not for a while, so it will be a shock to the system! I’m looking forward to it. It will be great fun.
“It’s a team event, based on the third rider across the line, so we’ve got to look after each other. It should be interesting,” he said.
Frances will be backing Alex Dowsett if the Team Sky rider returns to defend his title in the elite criterium, having first been alerted to the national time trial champion’s abilities when Dowsett set a junior course record in 2005 on the A10 course.
Dowsett won last year’s IG Nocturne after an audacious attack from the start which saw him catch the opposition cold.
Michael Frogley works as a motion graphic designer at IG, and has cycled since he was 10, racing as a junior with Hampshire Road Club, and competing on the road, the track, and in circuit races.
London’s ‘fixie’ scene made cycling fashionable in the City, he said, and initiatives like the Sky Rides had further boosted the popularity of the sport.
“It’s really popular with the couriers. It’s become fashionable to own a fixie. The Sky rides and Team Sky have made cycling talked about.
“The economy and overcrowding of public transport have encouraged people to ride a bike to work.
“I bought this bike, brand new, and it took me four months to pay for it by not travelling on public transport. It keeps you fit, so you don’t need a gym. It’s a no brainer.”
Alex Stephenson, 36, a business manager at IG, began riding as the son of a keen cyclist growing up in Norfolk. “My first memories of getting into cycling was watching World of Sport on Saturday lunchtimes, watching Hinault and Fignon,” he recalls.
Now living in Brighton, he races occasionally with the Brighton Mitre club, and has completed the Etape and Marmotte sportives.
Asked to asses his team’s chances in the Nocturne, he said: “Hopefully we’ll do ourselves justice. I’m not sure what our opposition’s like. It will be interesting. There’s lots of very talented cyclists out there and I’m not looking forward to suffering or letting people’s wheels go on the evening!”
Sales trader, Will Hedden, 26, has been cycling since he was 16, racing with Glade cycling club in Epping. He plans to compete in circuit races in the build up to the criterium.
He said he had witnessed the growth in the popularity of cycling in the City at first hand. “I’ve been in the City for five or six years and lived near London all my life and the growth in cycling has been incredible.
“Media exposure of the sport helps. Ken Livingstone kicked things off and Boris has kept it going. People are health conscious, image and fitness conscious,” he said.
The IG City Criterium is the third race of the evening and starts at 6.10pm.
