Pic by Chris Sidwells – www.chrissidwells.com

The London-Paris Cycle Tour, which will take place from 25-28 June 2009, is Britain’s premier Pro-Am cycle event. It’s a professionally organised ride for amateur cyclists and aims to be the closest the amateur rider can get to competing in the Tour.

Former Tour de France winner Stephen Roche will be joined on the ride by former British road race champion, Brian Smith, and ex-England footballer, Geoff Thomas. The Geoff Thomas Foundation, which aims to fund blood cancer research, has been named as the lead fundraising partner for London-Paris ’09.

London-Paris director, Sven Thiele, said: “These are just the first three big names in our line up. We will be announcing other exciting additions to next year’s event in the coming weeks.

“With the success of British Cycling in Beijing, cycling in Britain is enjoying a real boom and in the run up to 2012 we expect interest and enthusiasm for the sport to increase,” said Thiele.

Commenting on the partnership with the Geoff Thomas Foundation, Thiele said: “Despite the credit crunch, it is important for us to maintain a sense of corporate social responsibility. It means that our event looks beyond the bike, to people who need our help.”

“London-Paris is now recognised as the blue riband event in British cyclosportives and we have attracted blue chip sponsorship to support our ride,” he added.

This year’s sponsors are car giants Subaru, adidas, Sigma Sport, British Cycling, Everyday Cycling and sports nutrition manufacturer, Science In Sport.

The event will also be supporting the Christel House, Schools for Children in Cambodia and South Africa’s Morning Star which works with children with HIV.

Registration for the event opens on November 17th and details of the route can be viewed at:www.londres-paris.com.