Wrexham looks to bring Tour of Britain cycling events to area for five years

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Aug 9th, 2022

A plan for Wrexham’s involvement in future Tour of Britain Cycling events could be approved later this year.

On the local authority’s forward work programme, where details of the expected upcoming decisions by the executive board and full council are posted, there is a brief update stating that senior councillors will be asked to back the county’s involvement with the Tour.

It states that a decision on Wrexham’s involvement in the major cycling event is due by the executive board at its meeting on October 11.

If approved the plan would be in place for the next five years, with Wrexham.com understanding the hope is a start, finish – or both could be held in the then newly crowned City.

The events attract thousands of locals and cycling fans to the host towns and cities each year, providing an opportunity for communities to cheer on participants as they travel across the UK.

Even for those who don’t host checkpoints, the tour passing through an area alone will should large crowds line the street to show their support to cyclists.

Wrexham County Borough has been involved with the Tour of Britain previously, with cyclists such as Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish passing through the area as part of the route for the main event.

In 2015 for the first time Wrexham played host to Stage One of the Tour of Britain.

Thousands of people flocked to the town centre to celebrate the occasion, which also featured live entertainment and activities available throughout the day.

Prior to the event schools and members of the public were encouraged to get involved and show their support for the cyclists by colouring in bike images and displaying them in shop and home windows. Wrexham’s streets were also physically altered to enable the event, with crossings levels and streets straightened such was the effort made to host.

More recently the town played host to the Women’s Tour, which despite being a large event received little promotion and as a result there was a far lesser turnout than many would have expected.