Named as Sports event of the year in Leicestershire in 2005, the 2006 edition of the Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic looks set to become a real festival of local sport involving the local community when it takes place on Sunday 14th May.
In support of the big race the Melton Olympic Cycling Club will be organising skills based events for children of all ages in the closed road environment of Sherrard Street in the run-up to the race finish. These events will be open to all local children who own a bike and it is hoped that parents will bring their children along to try their hand at the safe skills based activities being staged.
Even if you don’t have a bike the race will provide the opportunity for a member of the local public to win a top class mountain bike kindly donated by Pedal Power of Loughborough as the top prize in a Rafflesweepstake being run in conjunction with the race by the Melton Mowbray Rotary Club. Tickets for this competition are available from members of the Rotary Club and Melton Olympic Cycling Club, as well as from the Tourist Information Office, Melton Times Office and The Melton Computer Centre in Market place Melton.
Supporting events based around the races departure from the start in Oakham, and its return to the town just over an hour later are also planned.
“These additional aspects of the race are aimed at involving the local community in what really has become a major sporting event for the area in just one year” said Race Director Colin Clews. “The whole event is creating its own momentum and it is important to the race organisation that this be used to assist and support the local community in return for the help received from so many in enabling the event to take place.”
Meanwhile, confirmation has now been received that the event will be televised on British Eurosport as part of a deal agreed between British Cycling and CyclingTV.com. “This is absolutely fantastic news and will enable a much greater audience to see what a tremendous race, and race route that we have in the heart of the East Midlands,” enthused Clews, “there are far too few opportunities for British riders to experience continental style racing on home roads, but this is what we have created within a short distance of Rutland and Melton, and for this to be captured on live television will bring a new dimension to the domestic racing scene. And it is a great credit to the foresight of local companies such as Masterfoods, the Melton Mowbray Building Society, Nottingham East Midlands Airport, Manor Farm Feeds and The Melton Times that they have come on board with the event at such any early stage in its growth.”
The race in prospect is already becoming clearer each day with all the top British competitors expected, in addition to local favourite James Cambridge from Oakham, 4th last year, who recently demonstrated his good form with two stage wins in the Tour of San Domingo in the Dominican Republic, the Australian FRF Couriers Team have declared Peter Macdonald, winner of the recent Tour of New Caledonia amongst its contingent for the CiCLE Classic.
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