The Olympic Park in Stratford will cost around 3.3 billion, a staggering figure that should be somehow justified with regular use of its facilities after the summer Games in London.

One of the events already scheduled is the London Festival of Cycling, a two day extravaganza to take place in August 2013 that will be the first major occasion to use the Olympic Park when it reopens.

Recently, the Mayor of London has announced that six of the world leading cycling events organisers have been shortlisted to run the festival. The companies are Tour de France owners Amaury Sport Organisation; IMG; Limelight Sports and Participate Sport; London & Surrey Cycling Partnership; Great North Run owners Nova International; and Upsolut.

Organisers will have until mid April to submit their applications and the Mayor's team will select the best proposal before July.

"The high quality of the shortlisted organisations is a clear demonstration of their confidence in London's ability to host a world class cycle festival. With the Games just around the corner, the investment to date is already paying off, and my team is hard at work developing the events that will help us showcase our great city to the world for many years to come" said Boris Johnson.

A mass family ride involving 70,000 cyclists on an eight mile circuit of closed roads around London's landmarks is expected to take place on the first day of the weekend festival. On a different day amateur and professional cyclists will ride a 100 mile route starting at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and pretty much following the route of the 2012 Games cycle road race.

The festival of cycling would also make use of the Lee Valley VeloPark - a venue that includes the Olympic Velodrome and BMX track, plus mountain bike trails and a road circuit which will be constructed after the Games - along with the Lee Valley Hockey Centre and the Lee Valley Tennis Centre.

Iain Edmondson, Head of Major Events at London & Partners and the Project Director for the festival of cycling added: "The prize for the successful organisation is huge as they will be at the heart of creating a new global event for London to rival the best of the city's existing annual sporting events."

Be the first to comment on this.