Milton Keynes hosts round 1 of The Tour Series

Round One of the Tour Series will be in Milton Keynes next May, organisers Sweetspot today announced.

Milton Keynes joins Woking and Southport as the first venues to formally announce hosting a round of the new televised series of city centre criterium races in 2009, with the Buckinghamshire town holding the first ever Tour Series event on Thursday 21st May.

Commenting on the announcement, Gin Corrado, Events Coordinator for Milton Keynes, said:

“We are delighted to be hosting the first race of The Tour Series!

This year’s Tour of Britain put Milton Keynes firmly on the cycling map and we had a great turn out from all the cycling fans.

We are delighted to be embarking on this new adventure and I’m confident we will deliver yet another high calibre event.”

In addition to the hour long Tour Series round, Milton Keynes will host a whole day of cycling related activities, including youth races, demonstrations and skills sessions designed to encourage participation and to build a cycling-themed carnival atmosphere, that will be rounded off by the feature race on a circuit at the heart of the town.

Tour Series Technical Director Mick Bennett, said:

“We had a fantastic reception from Milton Keynes for The Tour of Britain this summer, with the town playing host to the Race Headquarters as well as the opening road stage, and we can’t wait to return with The Tour Series in May.

As it’s Round One all the teams will be battling for the chance to be the first squad to take the five leader’s jerseys at the end of the race, making it a race not to miss.

Everybody in Milton Keynes is a tremendous supporter of bike racing, so it will be a pleasure to put on, what I’m sure will be a great race, rounding off a whole day of cycling festivities that the whole community can be a part of.”

With a rich history of hosting cycling events, such as the Milk Race and the start of Stage Two of the 2008 Tour of Britain, Milton Keynes provides the perfect setting for the first ever Tour Series event.

The Tour Series is crit racing with a twist, it is not based on individual athletic performance, but instead on team performance.

Rather than focusing on individual riders, the teams will be the stars, with ten top British squads of five riders taking part in every round, plus guest stars and invited local riders, guaranteeing action packed and exciting racing throughout The Series.

More Tour series stories:

Tour series announced for May 2009

Southport signs up for Tour series