On August 2, sections of the city centre's roads will be closed to allow Skyride - a huge bike ride - to take place. The event, aimed at getting families back in the saddle, will start from Albert Square.
Cyclists will then travel along Bloom Street, Store Street, Old Mill Street, Phillips Park Road and Rowsley Street before joining Ashton New Road. They will then reach the Velodrome, where they will complete a lap before heading back to the city.
Organisers Sky are hoping the event will attract tens of thousands of bike riders. The organisers have set up various `Zones' at Sportcity and the town hall in Albert Square, in a project to promote healthy living.
Professional BMX riders will perform tricks and there will be a chance for visitors to customise and show off their bike at a `Style Zone'.
Olympic and world champion Victoria Pendleton will be taking part.
She said: "I'm really excited to be involved in the Manchester event, because it's the home of British cycling."
M.E.N reporter and cycling novice Mike Keegan is currently in training for the ride.
Updates on his progress will appear in the paper.
You can also visit his twitter site at: twitter.com/mikekeegan men
To register for the free event, or for further information, visit www.goskyride.com
For full list of road closures see www.manchester.gov.uk
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Closing the roads for one day is not the answer to giving people the confidence to use bikes and give up their cars - aside from the weather, dangerous traffic is the biggest reason people don't travel by bike for regular journeys in the city - how will a one-off day of special treatment encourage anyone to cycle in normal traffic?
As I said previously, there is a mass cycle ride in the city EVERY SINGLE MONTH (not to mention ongoing cycling community events) with the same purpose as this, it aggravates me that this sort of event doesn't get coverage until it's sponsored by a massive media conglomeration of dubious ethics, and endorsed by the Council. To put it politely, your coverage of community events is pretty poor.
tomegranate
Why not compile a report, take some pictures and submit them for publication? I am sure the MEN must have a procdure for accepting freelance articles?
The MEN reporter may be a novice cyclist, but how much training does it take to be able to cycle 10K?
I love these traffic-free days. I can drive from A to B without half the problems. (I'll put my tin hat on)
citycentre, that is such a good idea that I can't give a decent reason why I probably won't do it!
tomegranate
To make it even easier for you I found this in the contact us section:
News desk
News editor: Sarah Lester
Email: newsdesk@men-news.co.uk
Contact the M.E.N news desk if you have a news story or a press release you want to tell us about.
@Mike S, Manchester
Good point there. 10k (6 miles) is not the kind of distance you need to train for. At all.
Anyone can cycle that in well under an hour. In fact I can do that in under 40 mins (and I class myself as a novice too)!
Just seems like a shameless (and pointless) attempt at publicity.
If Manchester invested in better, safer cycling lanes into the city and filled in the many potholes you might encourage more into the city on their bikes. This would relieve a lot of conjestion and pollution, giving us all a better quality of life. It is not hard to implement. Bikes do not need much of a change to the infrastructure and a lot lesss financial investment than other forms of transport. Other European cities manage it.
I use my bike everyday, all weathers and I know it does me and the environment a bit of good.
However, I use my bike because public transport is so dire, full of low lives, dirty, slow and quite expensive!
I do love my bike, a nice Cannondale, aluminum and it is cool (I think), but if I had the money for a new range Rover with a V8 engine, leather seats, aircon and somewhere to plug my I-Pod in I would never be out of the thing...............
So I am on my bike due to my circumstance, if they were different it would be a toy for the weekend in summer only!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saying that, it is a sham, poor public transport, no proper cycle lanes and crowded roads. Look at Holland, it just works.............. Brilliant!
N.Casali
Yes 10k is easily cyclable, yet according to a report by Dr Mayer Hilman "two thirds of journeys between one and three miles long, and three-quarters of journeys between three and five miles long, are made by car."
So any event which gets people on bikes, and realising how easy it is to get around on one can only be good?
And before the usual mob turn up crying about road tax and the like, think about this, every short journey made by bike rather than car means less congestion on the roads for journeys that need to be made by car.
Seeing that the biking brigade have been pandered to, can we now look forward to a bike-free day when pedestrians can use footpaths without the fear of being in collision with a law-breaking cyclist. I'm all for encouraging the use of cycles but they should be made aware that the rules of the road apply equally to them and that footpaths are not for cyclists.