“We want people to say, ‘Oh, I’m going to have a go at that’.”
I’ve been riding around Sheffield all of my life. I love the history of the place, and as such, the urban cyclo concept links in with areas of regeneration around the city. Rather than just putting a racing event on, we like to bring people into areas that have played a vital role in the story of Sheffield. The first Urban CX event we did was at Kelham Island in 2017, working with Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, who were brave enough to let us use Kelham Island Museum for the first race. That was really well received and it ended going through the museum and all sorts of crazy stuff! The second race was at Park Hill, which obviously has its own regeneration story, so it was all about linking those riders in with that process, and the race becoming a part of the story of the site as well.
If you look at the locations of the races, they are predominantly in the city centre. However, part of my planning is that – as cycle racing can be seen as quite elite – we can change that perception. We want people to say, “Oh, I’m going to have a go at that”. We’re not just inspirational, but I think the big part of our outlook is aspirational. We’ve got quite a lot of commuters in the city, and I see them as being the core racing audience for our events. I know there’s a lot of Strava cycling battles that go on, too. The races are a really good arena for the rivalries that go on on Strava!
We’re reimagining spaces. You’ve got Park Hill and some people see it as a real sort of concrete blight on the city, but it’s the largest listed building in Europe, and reimagining it as a venue for a cycle race where there’s a lot of dynamism and movement around the site seems like a great repurposing of the space. Kelham Museum is also seen as a heritage site, so it was really brave for Sheffield Industrial Museums to let us cause chaos in there. It’s something unique for the city, and it is interesting to bring in a new audience down into these areas, especially people that wouldn’t necessarily come down to these places before the regeneration.
We’ve scaled it right down for this year with just an urban hill climb at Park Hill on March 25th, but we’re anticipating everything from your local club riders to commuter heroes; we’ve got our kids race and then we’ve got a Brompton race as well. We’re also really excited about is a cargo bike race – basically, we’ll have one person loading the bike, one person riding the bike, and then another person at the top of loading the bike. So if you’re good at Jenga or Tetris, come and join in!
Learn more at @sheffieldurbancx
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