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Danish Cargo Bike Champs kick off a week of top class bike racing in Copenhagen

Home grown bike racing sets the scene for Cav & co at the UCI Road World Champs

The UCI Road World Chamionships isn't the only elite cycling event in Copenhagen next week - before the likes of Mark Cavendish and Fabian Cancellara do their thing some homegrown talent will do battle for the Danish Cargo Bike Championships or Svajerløbet as they're known over there.

In recent years Copenhagen has seen a dramatic resurgence in the numbers of bike messenger- Svajere* - piloted cargo bikes on its streets prior to the rise of the car Copenhagen was famous for the numbers of such machines deliverying goods and plying their trade on its streets and with Copenhagen's emergence as one of the world's great cycling cities they're back and so is cargo bike racing.

“We have revived an old Copenhagen tradition, not least because cargo bikes and their users - svajere - once again dominate the urban landscape in Copenhagen. Denmark boasts a dozen brands of cargo bike producers and while people in other countries wash their SUVs, Copenhageners are content with their cargo bikes. We have calculated that there are more than 35,000 cargo bikes in the city and 25% of all families with two or more children have one”, says Mikael Colville-Andersen, CEO of Copenhagenize Consulting - one of the primary forces behind Svajerløbet.

The cargo bike championships have been running for a number of years and this year the Mayor of Copenhagen will fire the starting pistol for the first race at noon on Saturday (17th), it takes place in the grounds of the Carlsberg brewery, there will be races and activities for riders of all ages, and to get everyone in the mood for both the Svajerløbet and the UCI world champs there will be U-11 to U-17 road racing over the Carlsberg cobbles.

The cargo bikes will race over a 700m route which includes cobbled sections and some inclines each will carry a load of car tyres and bundles of newspapers – it's tradidtional apparently.

If you find yourself, and your cargo bike in Copenhagen on Saturday and fancy some racing action you can register at www.dmforladcykler.dk

The UCI Road World Championships take place in Copenhagen from 19-25 of September.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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3 comments

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seanieh66 | 13 years ago
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 19 I love it

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OldRidgeback | 13 years ago
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Great idea, nuts but great.

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A V Lowe | 13 years ago
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Anyone care to sponsor me with Brompton and Trailer next year? Proven system for GVW up to 250Kg towing at 15-20mph?

Given Growing UK appearance of Circe's, 8freight's, Bullitts' (the hot favourites for CPH winners), Fr8's, Yuba's, Lorri's and Cyclus Maximus, when will we see a UK contest? Blenheim Bike fest maybe?

oops sorry Andrea and Christiania's the choice of Zero for their London delivery services.

Sponsor option might replicate a race we ran back in 1970's - Bradford-London with a firkin (size) barrel of beer, sponsored by brewery, won by team riding a motorbike with barrel on rear carrier. Modern version would probably won by team with Brompton on train, or co-ordinated Bullitt-train/plane-Bullitt. Anyone care to help put this together?

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