Halfords Tour Series to Host Horizon Fitness Womens RR

[veloriders]

Women’s cycle race as curtain-raiser for men’s event. SweetSpot, together with Horizon Fitness - makers of quality home fitness equipment - today announced the Horizon Fitness Women’s Grand Prix that will take place in Stoke-on-Trent, ahead of The Halfords Tour Series on 17 June this year. The Horizon Fitness Women's Grand Prix will see riders from Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta, Rapha Condor Sharp, Horizon Fitness and other teams, taking part and giving the public an opportunity to see the best women racers in the UK on the 1.5KM Stoke-On-Trent circuit. The race will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 17 June, prior to the men’s race which will start at 19:00pm.

“The Horizon Fitness Women's Grand Prix is being run as a pilot event this year. We are looking at the possibility of running a wider women’s Series as part of The Halfords Tour Series 2011,” said Mick Bennett, Technical Director for The Halfords Tour Series.

Jon Johnston, Managing Director for Horizon Fitness added: "Women's cycling is becoming increasingly popular, and as sponsors of a successful women’s racing team with Olympic hopefuls, we are delighted to be supporting this new initiative. The Halfords Tour Series is the natural place for a race of this calibre, and we are optimistic that this will be the start of a regular women’s Tour Series. With the build up to the Olympics in 2012, and the increasing focus on sport, health and wellbeing, we hope that this race and the team will inspire people to get more active, and also encourage youngsters, both male and female, to take up sport.”

The winner of the Women’s Grand Prix race will receive the same cash prize as the race winner in the men’s race, and additional cash prizes will be on offer to the top 15 finishers of the Horizon Fitness Women’s Grand Prix.

The event will race on the same circuit as the Halfords Tour Series race later that evening, and will run for 30 minutes plus five laps. It will also be run under the standard British Cycling rules and regulations for circuit races.

The Grand Prix is open to domestically registered British Cycling licence holders holding Elite, 1st & 2nd category licences. There will be a £20 entry fee, and entry on the line will be allowed should there be spaces available on the day. Registrations to ride should be sent as soon as possible to the SweetSpot head office or via email to hawesa@thetour.co.uk with cheques made payable to SweetSpot Group Ltd.

The Halfords Tour Series takes place from 25 May to the 24 June in 2010 across ten cities, and sees ten teams of five professional cyclists battle it out to be crowned the best team in the country.
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