Big welcome plan for cycle tour

Friday, 07 September 2012

Mark Renshaw winning last year’s Devon stage which finished in Exmouth

Treasure hunting cycle fans will be able to piece together a cycle riddle and win a prize as they wait for Olympic biking hero Bradley Wiggins to ride into town.
The treasure hunt where contestants have to go from shop to shop to find photos of bicycle parts until they have ‘put together’ an entire bike is one of the fun events being laid on on the day the Tour of Britain cycle race hits town.
Dartmouth is bracing itself for tens of thousands of visitors to flood in on Saturday September 15 as the massive cycle race roadshow hits town. Competitors include Tour de France champion and Olympic hero Bradley Wiggins as well as other top national and international cyclists.
The town council has spent £300 producing 5,000 cycle race leaflets detailing what the town is organising for the event.
They have been sent out to tourist information centres around the area as well as placed in shops and businesses around the town.
So far the line up includes a performance by the Dartmouth Volunteer Band along the embankment, the bicycle treasure hunt, a fete in Coronation Park, a crabbing competitions, a barbecue in Coronation Park and the continental market which will be going ahead on the Market Square car park from 9am to 5pm. There will also be demonstrations by premiere mountain bike trials athlete Andrei Burton in Royal Avenue Gardens, and bicycle security sessions with the police.
Hopes that the Royal Navy would supply a guardship and a Royal Marines band for the day to add to the spectacle have been dashed.
And plans to stage a music concert in the Royal Avenue Gardens bandstand on the night before race day were also dashed after police opposed the event on the grounds that it could cause anti social behaviour.
Dartmouth will be the venue for the finish of the Westcountry leg of the Tour of Britain cycle race with the bikers expected to pour down the steep College Way before a sprint finish along the embankment.
Business forum chairman Paul Reach said that so far some 19 stalls had signed up for spots on Coronation Park for the fete and that it was also planned to have a band playing in a boat moored off the South Embankment in the evening.
The continental market will include traders from France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Holland and Poland and stallholders will be wearing traditional dress from their various countries.

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