Saddlesore in the City after bike challenge
AFTER organisers confirmed last week that three stages of the 2014 Tour De France will be held in the UK, there was no better time for the London Bike Show to hit town, as it took over the Excel Centre this weekend.
Keen to make the most Team GB’s success at last summer’s Olympics, organisers brought the excitement of the velodrome to the City’s budding Sir Wigginses and Victoria Pendletons – inviting cycling fans to try their hand at competitive racing in the IG London Nocturne.
Padded shorts at the ready, teams from asset manager Brewin Dolphin, law firm Clifford Chance and big four accountant Ernst * Young lined up to take each other on in a series of time trials, sprints and relays to separate the Mark Cavendishes from the (ahem) Lance Armstrongs.
Despite being no stranger to the saddle having already organised two charity bike rides to Paris, the team from Brewin Dolphin didn’t manage to finish top of the leader board, but team captain David Pegler head of its Brighton office – called the evening “great fun” and said the firm’s cyclists couldn’t wait to try out the Nocturne again in the summer.
Though the rules of the competition stipulated no professional or ex-professional riders were allowed to race, celebrity moonlighters were out in force, with ex-England footballer Lee Dixon leading the Shift Active Media team, and Match of the Day 2 host Colin Murray slipping into Team GB lycra for the media race.
Cally Squires is away