27 June 2021 will be a landmark for British road racing. It will see the first elite-level road race in the UK for 666 days. Fans, riders, and teams have had to wait nearly a full year two years for an elite road race on home soil. And whilst many a cycling fan will have their gaze fixed on stage 2 of the Tour de France, it’s important too that we celebrate this moment.
The race we allude to, of course, is the 5th edition Women’s CiCLE Classic. A relatively new race on the calendar, it has quickly established itself as an important event for the women’s domestic peloton. And as the first round of the National Road Series after such a long lay-off from elite road racing, it takes on even greater significance this year.
Ahead of the race, we spoke to the organiser Colin Clews, who coincidentally was also the organiser of the last National A road race in the UK: the Bourne CiCLE Classic. In a fascinating interview, Colin explains the challenges of putting on a top-level race in these times, tells us why the event will be much more than just a bike race, highlights the massive interest the race has had from both teams and the local community, discusses the new route, and what kind of race we might expect.
The incredible Pete Stanton was also on the call with Colin, but for some reason, our technology failed to capture his end of the recording. Pete is the very generous sponsor of the race and has been since its inception, as Colin explains in the interview. The hiccup means, however, that, unfortunately, we can’t hear from Pete this time around, so we’ll have to get him back on the podcast another time.
View the startlist. A race preview will be published soon too and we'll add a link here once it's up.
The British Continental. Proudly presented by Le Col, supported by Pro-Noctis