Sport

London’s mayor launches 2013 cycle festival

07 Feb, 2012

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has called for a world-class cycling festival to be held in London during August 2013. Johnson hopes that the two-day event will attract about 200,000 people to the capital a year after the end of the Olympic Games.

The first day of the festival will focus on a family fun event involving about 70,000 cyclists on an eight-mile course. The second day will be for amateur and club cyclists on a 100-mile circuit starting at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and continuing along part of the Olympic cycle route. The festival will be the first public event to make use of the Olympic facilities after the end of the games in September 2012.

The mayor also expects the festival to generate business and jobs in the post-Olympic period.

Johnson has done much to support cycling as an alternative form of transport during his time in office and has given his name to the 6,000 blue,