AHEAD of the Tour of Britain coming to Furness in September 2018, the Lakes Road Club is bringing amateur road cycle racing back to the peninsula, with the Lakes Road Club’s Ulverston Summer Road Race on July 15.

It is the first time in several years that amateur road racing has been held in the area, and the Lakes Road Club wanted to bring it back. Event organiser and club member Richard Dixon said: “Many of our members are involved in racing throughout the north west, but there are no events in this area, so we thought it about time to rectify that. We’ve pulled together a great team of people from the club who are all putting their own time into getting the event up and running.”

The event is being run under British Cycling regulations and the 60 riders taking part will take in six laps of a nine-mile circuit based around a start and finish on Birkrigg, with the circuit going to Scales, down to the Coast Road at Aldingham, along to Ulverston, up Oakwood Drive and back up to Birkrigg.

Richard added: “We’re trying to create a ‘Fan Zone’ at the Start / Finish area, where people can watch the race – we’ll be giving away clapper sticks and cow bells so that spectators can cheer the riders as they go through, and there will be prizes throughout the race for the first across the line on different laps, so hopefully plenty of action to see.”

The event has attracted entries from all over the north west, including promising local talent, so some of the names riding may end up as pros at some point in the future. In the past, riders such as Chris Boardman have ridden local races organised by the club and gone on to be household names.