2013 Staffordshire Cycling Festival

Why not make a weekend of it? – An Accommodation Guide

Rob Rowlands — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:03:29 +0000

For those of you coming to Stafford from further afield to watch the pro-racing or to take part in one of the events yourself, why not make a weekend of it and explore what Stafford and Staffordshire have to offer in terms of its history, it’s scenery and its wide choice of food and drink. And to help you, our friends at Enjoy Staffordshire have the details of a wide range of accommodation available nearby. For all the details, head to their website, www.enjoystaffordshire.com where you can browse all of the various options and make a booking direct.

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All change for 2013 – now with added you!

Rob Rowlands — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:38:12 +0000

After months of preparation, Leadout Cycling Ltd together with Staffordshire County and Stafford Borough Councils is proud to announce the launch of the new, Staffordshire Cycling Festival. This year the event is bigger and better. Building on the popularity of the Stafford GP we have extended the event over two days. It takes place this year over the weekend of 9th and 10th August and will feature events in Stafford town centre and at Shugborough. And this year there is even more opportunity to take part in a wide variety of cycling activities. Members of the Festival organising team and Councillor Mike Smith, Borough Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, launched the event today in Market Square with the help of An Post-Chain Reaction Cycles’ Kieran Friend together with students from King Edwards and St Patricks schools. Councillor Smith said of the event: “The Stafford GP continues to grow in popularity and is now firmly part of the county’s sporting calendar. It is testament to its popularity that it has now been extended to become a festival of racing – giving so many more people the opportunity to take part in, or watch some of the best road race cyclists on our doorstep. It is a fantastic spectacle, but also a boost for the local economy bringing more people to our town and we are pleased to be a part of that.” Organiser, Paul Rowlands, commented: “We’re delighted to have the backing of both the County Council and the Borough Council to enable us to take a three year old event and turn it into a weekend of sport that combines elite racing and events where everybody can take part. With the support of the councils, and sponsors who contribute to and support the event, we’re hoping that our event can bring even more to the town and now to the wider county too.” Staffordshire County Councillor Mike Lawrence, Cabinet Member for Community, Culture and Localism, added: “Staffordshire is a marvellous county with lots of interesting things to do and see, and this exciting event provides a great opportunity to showcase just what we have to offer. We’ve got some of the UK’s top cyclists taking part and we’ll have lots of visitors from across the county and hopefully many more from out of the county. Our sportive from Shugborough will also give many of our budding cyclists a chance to compete alongside some of the country’s best riders. Young people will also get the chance to join in with a range of sporting activities over the weekend.” With full Festival details yet to be released, the programme so far includes: Friday 9th August (from 5pm): Grass Roots Racing Handcycling British Cycling National Women’s Series Race Stafford GP Saturday 10th August (daytime): 35m Sportive 70m Sportive Saturday 10th August (evening) Pro Cycle Race – Shugborough Kermesse Further information about the event and how you can get involved will be posted here in the coming weeks. But don’t forget that you can join in the conversations on Facebook and via Twitter. And we’ll look forward to seeing you all there.

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Stafford GP grows into Staffordshire Goes Pedalling for 2013

Rob Rowlands — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:30:34 +0000

After 3 years as a town centre grand prix event, one of Stafford’s key sporting and cultural events grows this year into something for the whole county as the Stafford GP becomes Staffordshire Goes Pedalling, a 2 day festival of cycling with opportunities for you to see the countries best male and female elite riders race as well as the chance to get involved yourself with 2 new sportive rides to choose from. The action will get underway on friday the 9th August with the now traditional town centre racing involving Elite Men, Women, Schools and handcyclists before Saturday the 10th sees the event up sticks and head to the stately setting of Shugborough where 2 new sportives will start and finish during the day before the professionals once again take to the roads for the inaugural Shugborough Kermesse. It’s going to be an exciting weekend of action here in Staffordshire, if you’ve not been before, this is a great excuse to come to this beautiful bit of the world, if you’re already here, make sure the date is in your diary! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all the news of sportive routes, race circuits and who’s riding on the day. We’ll be formally launching the event in the next few weeks, but if you can’t wait to enter, click here to find out more.

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Highlights

Rob Rowlands — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 07:54:09 +0000

If you missed the racing in person last Wednesday, shame on you! However, there is another opportunity to see all of the action from the Claremont Hospital Stafford GP courtesy of Sky Sports and British Cycling. 10/07/2012 6.30pm Sky Sports 4 Digital 9.30pm Sky Sports 4 Digital 11/07/2012 1.00am Sky Sports 2 Digital 9.00am Sky Sports 2 Digital 1.00pm Sky Sports 1 Digital

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Thank You

Rob Rowlands — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:54:01 +0000

And so after all that hard work another Stafford GP is consigned to the history books. It is fair to say that despite the best efforts of the weather we had a great evening’s racing in the town centre. Congratulations to our winners on the night: Joe Evens in the Henry Burton U-16 race, Karen Darke in the Hand Cycling, Isabella for her unofficial win in the Lupus Lap and of course Graham Briggs on taking his second straight win in this year’s Elite Circuit Race Series and his maiden Stafford victory. Without the help and support of a host of people we could not have put on this spectacle. Our thanks go out to our sponsors for once again providing us with the resources, to British Cycling for providing the logistical support, to Stafford FM for our first ever live race coverage and to the employees of those business and organisations for their hard work throughout the day. However, our biggest thanks go to three groups of people: to the riders for putting on a great show; to all of our volunteer marshalls without whom we could not guarantee the safety of everyone on the course and finally to everyone who didn’t let the weather beat them and came into Stafford to watch a great night’s racing. It takes a lot of people to put on a bike race. Without you all it wouldn’t be the same. We hope to see you all back in 2013. Hopefully the sun will put in an appearance too.

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The Last King of Stafford

Rob Rowlands — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 08:51:58 +0000

Now in its 3rd year, the origins of today’s Stafford GP go back to the Stafford Town Centre Races held in the 1980s. Criteriums were an important part of professional cycling, just as they are today. And whilst the Stafford races were never part of the televised Kelloggs series, it was an important date on the calendar, attracting a star studded field and huge crowds. The undisputed king of those Stafford Town Centre Races was Steve Joughin. Steve was the Mark Cavendish of his day. Born in Douglas on the Isle of Man, it was cycling which brought him to the mainland and eventually to settle in Stoke-on-Trent. After an outstanding amateur career he turned professional in 1983 for local Stafford sponsors Moduce, establishing himself as one of the best criterium riders of his generation and a fearsome sprinter amongst his clleagues. In the Kelloggs series he was one of the British based riders who regularly took on and beat some of the biggest names from the continent including Sean Kelly, Stepehen Roche and Phil Anderson. But it was the Stafford races which Steve made his own. Of the 3 edition he raced, Steve remained undefeated, the true King of Stafford and a record of which he is rightly proud. Steve now runs Pro Vision clothing based in Stoke-on-Trent supplying cycle clothing to club cyclists and professional alike and is official supplier to the Tour of Britain. On Wednesday Steve will be in Stafford to keep an eye on those eyeing up his crown, though with his 3 wins there is still a long way to go to dethrone him. At some point in the evening we hope to have Steve on the podium for a short interview – and no doubt he’ll be available to sell you some merchandise should you chose.

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Stafford Chamber of Commerce’s Sharon Seipel

Rob Rowlands — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:52:57 +0000

For our final catch-up with the Stafford GP’s sponsors and supporters we spoke with Sharon Seipel of the Stafford Chamber of Commerce who sounds like she is really looking forward to Wednesday night. What you do in your job? I work for Stafford Chamber Commerce as Stafford Manager. I’m here to support the Stafford Members of the Chamber and raise the profile through events, social media and good old fashioned one to one communication. How long you have lived in Stafford? I have lived in Stafford for nearly 6 years having moved up from the West Midlands and have worked for Stafford Chamber and also Stafford Enterprise for the past three years. I love Stafford, I’m very proud of my new home town! What does the Stafford GP mean to you and Stafford Chamber of Commerce? It’s the chance for us to say thank you to members of Stafford Chamber who have supported us for ten years or more by inviting then to the VIP Venue. Also, to be given the opportunity to support such an exciting sport, particularly in this year with the Olympics we really did not want to miss out. What does the Stafford GP mean for Stafford? It’s great! A fantastic opportunity for the local people and business community to come together to watch a really thrilling sport. Also with the whole event being filmed by Sky it really puts Stafford on the map.

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A meeting with John Hibbs of the Hibbs Lupus Trust

Rob Rowlands — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 10:49:18 +0000

With an official race charity for the first time this year’s race is very special. As we announced in May, we have teamed up with the Hibbs Lupus Trust and some of you have entered the Lupus Lap to add your support too. In the last of our pieces with our supporters and sponsors we caught up with John Hibbs, founder and chairman of the Hibbs Lupus Trust to find out a little bit more about what Lupus is and how his charity is helping. Hi John, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you set up a Lupus charity? My name is John Hibbs and I am the Chairman of the trust. My sister has lupus and as a family we wanted to raise awareness of the disease so we decided to take action ourselves and set up the trust. The trust was set up in order to support lupus patients and their families across Staffordshire. Many people won’t have heard of Lupus, can you tell us a bit more about what is it? Lupus is an autoimmune condition, which means that it is caused by problems with the immune system (the body’s natural defence against illness and infection). In people with lupus, the immune system starts to attack healthy cells, tissue and organs. It is believed that over 50,000 people throughout the UK suffer with Lupus of whom 90% are female. There is no cure! Symptoms can include; extreme fatigue, eye problems, joint/muscle pain, depression, miscarriage, hair loss, anaemia, facial and other rashes as well as the possible involvement of kidneys, heart, lungs or brain. With such devastating symptoms many people will wonder how to know if they have it. How did Viki find out she had Lupus? Viki was diagnosed with lupus in 2008 aged just 25. She started to feel unwell and experienced itchy eyes, a rash which started on her face and generally felt tired. After her 1st visit to the doctor she was advised it was Eczema before then being advised is was an allergic reaction on the second visit. As the symptoms became worse she was admitted to hospital and placed on a drip whilst tests were carried out. More symptoms appeared and due to pain in her wrists she was referred to a rheumatologist where, upon the first examination, he advised her that, although they would need to test to confirm, he thought it was lupus. And so now you run the Hibbs Lupus Trust, what made you set this up? When we learnt that Viki had lupus we had never heard of it. Then you look at the internet and see all the horror stories and begin to panic. We don’t want other patients and families to be in the same position that we were. We have regular support meetings and are here to share our experience with others going through the same situation. Clearly this is a very worthy cause. What will the money raised by the Lupus Lap go towards? We are working closely with Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust to identify areas we can make improvements in the provision of facilities, support services and equipment not normally provided by the NHS Trust for the benefit of lupus patients. As well of the money raised from the Lupus Lap, the awareness this will bring is essentially as important. We aim to raise awareness so that people are familiar with the illness and its symptoms and also feel that there is support out there with someone at the end of the phone whenever they need it. Thanks for a very enlightening chat John. It is not too late for you to help John and Viki make a difference. To find out more and make a donation head to www.hibbslupustrust.org.

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Ride a mile and do something special this week

Rob Rowlands — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 10:03:45 +0000

As you all know by now this year we are running the world’s shortest sportive to raise money for the Hibbs Lupus Trust. Heather is one of the participants in the Lupus Lap. She’s a nurse at the Claremont Hospital and is both a sufferer and a carer for those with Lupus. It’s not too late to enter the Lupus Lap, please read what follows and think about giving us a fiver to take a spin around the Stafford Grand Prix circuit: Lupus is still a rarely talked about illness, with no known specific cause and to date without a cure. Supporting the Hibbs Lupus Trust through the Stafford Grand Prix “Lupus lap” will not only help the daily lives of those suffering the illness who are local to Stafford, but will also assist with the much needed, ongoing research based on medicines management and seeking a cure. It is an illness where the bodies own immune system builds too many antibodies causing inflammatory responses and begins affecting many of the bodies systems. For some skin rashes and sensitivity with joint pains but for others it affects major organs like the brain, heart, lungs and kidneys. As nurse and a person with Lupus I have two perspectives. I have looked after people with Lupus, cared for and comforted them through some of the most debilitating forms of a condition which can, for some, have devastating affects on their daily lives, ability and their families. I sometimes wonder whether I will be in need of the same care at some point in the future, after all, with an illness without cure or known origin how can you predict the normal course it will take. From an individual point of view I feel quite lucky. Yes, I have pain daily, I could sleep at any point of any day, I should wear a sun block whatever the weather and I’ve had various glitches in my health from time to time, but I can and do go to work full time, I cycle… granted at a leisurely pace, and I play squash whenever I can persuade someone to give me a game. So for now I’m ok and will keep going, and perhaps if and when I need more medical assistance events like this will have enabled that little bit more public awareness, medical research and just maybe a cure. The support of every rider in the Lupus Lap will make a big difference to the work of the Hibbs Lupus Trust today. So why not do something special this week, ride less than a mile and help raise funds and awareness for the Hibbs Lupus Trust. Entries are still open so go to the entry page now!

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Claremont Hospital’s Jane Davidson

Rob Rowlands — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 10:30:58 +0000

Claremont Hospital are the title sponsors of this year’s Stafford GP. In the run up to the race we spoke to Jane Davidson to find out a little bit more about the Hospital and its connection to Stafford. What is your job? I work for Claremont Hospital in Sheffield. My job involves promoting the hospital and it’s services to the general public, consultant users and the GP community in Sheffield and the surrounding areas. How does Claremont Hospital work in Stafford? Claremont Hospital has been working with Stafford North, South and Stoke Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to provide around 400 NHS Neuro-spinal consultations in Newcastle under Lyne leading to approximately 200 surgical procedures for Staffordshire patients, at Claremont Hospital in Sheffield What does sponsoring the Stafford GP mean to Claremont Hospital? We’ve found working with the local PCTs has been a really positive experience. Supporting the Stafford GP is a great way to say thank you to the people of Stafford and the surrounding area. Claremont Hospital has a history of supporting cyclists through the Claremont Sports Medicine and Performance Centre, which gives cyclists at every level access to the same expertise as the Rapha Condor Sharp pro cycling team who we sponsor. City Centre GPs are perfect to promote cycling to a wider audience.

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