Member Article

Ilkley turns out to cheer on women’s cycling race

Ilkley’s love of cycling showed no signs of fading on 24 June as hundreds of people turned out to cheer on this year’s Ilkley Cycle Races.

The four-category event, hosted by Ilkley Cycling Club, took in a 1.5km route around the town with the finish line situated on The Grove.

As part of its continued support of local community events and a drive to encourage more female cyclists in Yorkshire, local LPG supplier AvantiGas sponsored the Ilkley Women’s Race for the second year running, offering prize money and winners jerseys. With a 25% increase in entrants, the event has been heralded an even greater triumph than last year’s event, held just four days before the Tour de France. Thirty five women entered this year’s event, an increase of 25 per cent since last year, reflecting the massive growth of the sport amongst female cyclists.

The family friendly event also included races for under 14s, under 16s and two men’s races.

Stephanie Millward, chair of Ilkley Cycling Club which organised the event, said: “The people of Ilkley have done us proud again. Our decision to hold the race again following last year’s success was clearly the right one as the crowds were out in force again.

“Support from AvantiGas is key to the event as we want to encourage more women to experience competitive cycling and this year’s event was designed to attract up and coming racers to participate alongside experienced, elite competitors. It was a thrilling evening and a huge success again – thank you so much to everybody for their support.”

Coming first in the women’s race was 17-year-old Henrietta Colborne from Team Jadan, who beat strong competition to take home the £250 AvantiGas cash prize. Second and third places went to Brit Tate from Team WNT and Annie Simpson from Hope Factory Racing who were presented with £200 and £150 from AvantiGas.

Henrietta said: “The AvantiGas Women’s Race in Ilkley was a fantastic event, really well organised and incredibly well attended. To see so many elite and amateur women cyclists competing together was refreshing and will no doubt go a long way towards encouraging more female cyclists at competitive events. It’s a real privilege to have won against such fantastic cyclists and it was a welcome boost to receive the prize money from AvantiGas.”

Dan Eadson, representative from AvantiGas added: “We’re so proud to able to sponsor this fantastic event again. The spirit of the competitors and the support from the spectators is overwhelming.

“It is really important to us to get involved with the communities we serve, and supporting events like this mean we can really connect with local people. We’re hoping that the AvantiGas Women’s Race 2015 will have played its part in inspiring the next generation of Olympic cyclists.”

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