The Great Manchester Cycle is a closed-road

cyclosportive A cyclosportive, or often simply sportive, is a short to long distance, organised, mass-participation cycling event, typically held annually. The Italian term '' Gran Fondo'' is commonly used for these events in the United States, Australia and so ...

held in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...

and

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, England, during summer. Participants are invited to ride one, two or four laps of a course which starts at the

City of Manchester Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...

in east Manchester, heads along the

Mancunian Way The Mancunian Way is a two mile long grade separated elevated motorway in Manchester, England. It is officially made up of the A57(M) and A635(M) motorways, although the latter does not appear on road signs for practical reasons. It is also pa ...

and into

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

, before returning to the start line. Around 8,000 cyclists took part in the 2013 event.

Route

The 2012 closed-road course began at the City of Manchester Stadium and headed south to Ashton Old Road. There it turned west and onto the Mancunian Way, leaving that road at its junction with Chester Road. From there the route went southwest, heading into

Trafford Park Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the la ...

, before crossing the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

to take a short diversion through

Salford Quays Salford Quays is an area of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom foll ...

. Once through

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by Peel Media; its principal tenants are media organisations and the Quayside MediaCi ...

, the route again crossed the Ship Canal, went past

and back onto Chester Road, from where it headed back to the start, along the Mancunian Way. The 2013 course followed a broadly similar route, with modified start and finish positions, and no diversion through Salford Quays.

Participants

2013 Great Manchester Cycle, cyclists waiting to start

About 7,000 cyclists took part in 2012, with the event, which began at about 8:00 am, attracting around 1,500 riders. They were led by Olympic cyclists

Rebecca Romero Rebecca Jayne Romero, MBE (born 24 January 1980) is an English sportswoman, a former World Champion and Olympic Games silver medallist at rowing, and a former World champion and an Olympic champion track cyclist. Early life and education Romero ...

and

Lizzie Armitstead Elizabeth Mary Deignan (née Armitstead; born 18 December 1988) is an English professional world champion track and road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam . She was the 2015 World road race champion. Deignan is ...

. Other celebrities who took part in later events included actors from ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' and ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...

'', while some cyclists raised money for charity. The roads were re-opened by 5:00 pm. Officially launched on 28 February 2012, it was set up by Nova International in partnership with

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

. The event forms part of a "Great" series of sporting events in Manchester, including the Great Manchester Run and the

Great Manchester Swim {{Infobox , bodystyle = width:20em; , name = Infobox/doc , titlestyle = , headerstyle = , labelstyle = width:33% , datastyle = , image = , header1 = , label1 = Event Name , data1 = Great Swim , header2 = , label2 = Da ...

. Sponsors ''

The Daily Mirror ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' called it a "huge success". More than 8,000 cyclists took part in the 2013 event, led by Olympic gold medallist

Joanna Rowsell Joanna Katie Rowsell MBE (born 5 December 1988) is a retired English cyclist on the Great Britain Cycling Team who competed on track and road. Her greatest successes were the gold medals won in the women's team pursuit at the 2012 London Olym ...

. Actors from the television drama series ''Emmerdale'' also took part. About 2,800 cyclists rode the route.

References

External links

Great Manchester Cycle official site

ITV News video report
Cycling in Greater Manchester Cyclosportives in the United Kingdom {{cycling-stub

Route

Participants

See also

References

External links