A century on from holding the first mass start cycle events on the famous Brooklands circuit, the OVO Energy Tour Series will bring elite men’s and women’s racing back to the historic Surrey venue this May.
Saturday 25 May will witness the Grand Final of Britain’s leading televised cycle race series, taking place on a circuit based upon the former airfield and motor racing track in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey.
As well as the elite races, there will be family fun activities, races and events throughout the day that will celebrate the cycling and sporting heritage of the Brooklands location.
A special corporate challenge event will also engage the many major employers who are settled on or around the Brooklands business complex, located just outside of Weybridge town centre, giving them the chance to experience the same circuit as the professionals and to be a part of history.
Hugh Roberts, Chairman of Elmbridge-based event organisers SweetSpot Group said:
We are delighted to be working with Elmbridge Council and our other key stakeholders in order to create what we hope will become an annual fixture of cycling, as well as drawing attention to Brooklands, its history and the contribution it made to motor racing and cycling.
We hope that the OVO Energy Tour Series Grand Final will come back every year from now on – that would be a dream come true!
Tom Stewart, rider for defending men’s champions Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes, added:
Whenever a cycle race finishes at somewhere iconic it adds so much to the occasion, so the Brooklands Grand Final for the 2019 OVO Energy Tour Series promises to be a fantastic day of racing.
The elite races will take place on a 1.4-kilometre (0.9-mile) circuit that starts and finishes on the former runway of the Brooklands Aerodrome that now forms a community park. The event is expected to attract thousands of cycling fans from across London and the south east of England to witness the return of cycle racing to this iconic location.
September 1907 saw the Brooklands circuit host the world’s first mass start cycle race, something that became a regular fixture during the 1930s and is charted in a special exhibition at the Brooklands Museum. While racing has not returned to the circuit for a number of years, the Brooklands location lies alongside the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic route that has been raced on annually by the world’s leading professionals since 2013.
As well as being an unticketed, free-to-attend event, the OVO Energy Tour Series is unique in the world of cycling, as the focus in both the men’s and women’s competition is on the teams, who battle for the overall title based on the performance of all five of their riders in each round. The Series celebrated its 10-year anniversary and 100th event in Salisbury in May 2018.
Highlights of the OVO Energy Tour Series are screened on ITV4 and broadcast around the world, while event day will provide the opportunity for a range of community and cycling activities to take place on the closed road circuit at Brooklands.
The Surrey venue joins Redditch, Motherwell, Aberdeen, Durham and Birkenhead as other venues to be confirmed for the 2019 OVO Energy Tour Series.
–ENDS–
For further details, please contact:
Nick Bull: nickb@thetour.co.uk
Follow the OVO Energy Women’s Tour on Twitter (#OVOTourSeries), Facebook, Instagram or via the event’s official website at tourseries.co.uk.