Love to Ride South Yorkshire is delighted to be supporting the fantastic Sheffield Urban CX series this year. Find out more – and how you can win a series entry – below.
The series ran for the first time in 2017, with exciting races at eye-catching locations like Park Hill flats, an iconic example of Brutalist architecture and Europe’s largest listed building. This year’s series kicks off with Round 1 at Kelham Island Museum, with cobbled lanes and industrial hardware (like the huge Bessemer Converter, below) incorporated into the course, on Saturday 5 May.
The idea behind the series is to use Sheffield’s unique urban environment as a setting for cyclo-cross racing, which typically involves short courses where riders dismount and carry their bikes over, through or round obstacles like deep mud, wet grass and steep hills. At Sheffield Urban CX races expect these to be replaced by steps, cobbles and wooden berms.
The series is designed to be inclusive and fun for all. Riders of all abilities are welcome to enter and spectators can enjoy excellent local food and drink, the superb locations – and of course some exciting racing!
Adam Simmonite tells us how Sheffield Urban CX came about: ‘We wanted to do something a bit different to combine Sheffield’s status as The Outdoor City with its unique industrial heritage. There are iconic locations like Park Hill and Kelham Island that are brilliant venues for this kind of exciting, high-octane racing. We’re really excited about our pop-up events this year too – at Our Cow Molly during Bike Week and a hillclimb at Park Hill in July – and are delighted to have teamed up with Love to Ride South Yorkshire. Sheffield Urban CX is all about fostering a friendly cycling community and Love to Ride are helping to do just that across South Yorkshire.’
Love to Ride South Yorkshire will be at every race of the series, so come along and say hello to find out how you can join us to get more people on bikes. It’s also worth noting that the Our Cow Molly pop-up ride on 17 June and Round #3 at the Olympic Legacy Park fall during Love to Ride South Yorkshire events (Bike Week and Cycle September), so contestants will be in with extra chances to win prizes – as will any spectators who register at lovetoride.net and log a ride!
To launch our partnership, we will be giving away two Sheffield Urban CX series entries (worth £59 each, plus a tote bag and t-shirt for a lucky runner-up) for the best photos we get on the theme of urban cycling. Either tweet your photo tagging @LovetoRide_ and @SheffUrbanCX, share it on the Love to Ride Facebook page or email it to support@lovetoride.org – here’s a corker from our recent Beast from the East photo competition for some inspiration:
