Skyride 2009
Following the announcement of Sky’s partnership with British Cycling last year, we launched our cycling campaign, Skyride in June to encourage Great Britain to get back on their bikes. Throughout the summer we have held Skyride events in four city centres and have also created hundreds of weekly local guided rides to keep people on their bikes. These free events have given tens of thousands of people, of all ages and abilities, the chance to enjoy riding with their family and friends in a fun and safe environment. Visit www.goskyride.com (opens in a new window) to find out all the latest Skyride news.
The Skyride summer of cycling included:
Skyride city events - Over 100,000 people joined us in summer 2009 for our series of mass participation cycle rides in traffic-free city centres where cyclists have enjoyed the sights and sounds of their city traffic free as well as experiencing the Skyride entertainment at each event which included:
- Skyride Street Zone - Professional BMX and Mountain Bike riders performed tricks, with the opportunity for members of the pubic to take a course in stunt riding.
- Skyride Style Zone - Participants gave their bikes a free bike make-over using the most up to-date designs and accessories.
- Skyride Photo Point -At designated points along the route riders smiled for the cameras for a free memento of the day that they downloaded following the event at www.goskyride.com (opens in a new window)
- Skyride Active Zone - Cyclists received tips on health and wellbeing from British Cycling and competed against friends and family on the watt bike cycle challenge, as well as trying to beat celebrity sprint times. The winner in each category won a signed t shirt by an Olympic cyclist.
- Skyride Family -Designated area for kids and families, where children could learn new bike skills with free Go-Ride sessions from British Cycling professionals and have their photo taken with SpongeBob SquarePants.
Each event was attended by medal-winning members of the GB Cycling team such as Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Jamie Staff as well as our Skyride celebrity Gethin Jones. Gethin also cycled between the four Skyride cities, covering a total of 700 miles between Manchester, Glasgow, Leicester and London.
Our final city event, The Mayor of London’s Skyride, took place on Sunday 20th September when over 65,000 cyclists joined Boris Johnson and stars from the worlds of cycling and television to cycle the 15km city centre route. Cyclists of all ages and abilities took to the streets of London in the biggest public cycling event ever held in the Capital.
They were joined by Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy, actress and model Kelly Brook, TV personality and Skyride celebrity Gethin Jones, 2008 UCI Elite World BMX Champion Shanaze Reade and Olympic medalists Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Ross Edgar.
Video Transcript
The Mayor of London’s Skyride London
Boris Johnson: I think Sky have done a fantastic job and I really congratulate them on the sense of the promo, sense of fun and the uplift, its brilliant.
Boy 1: Cycling is just fun and helps you keep fit; I just think it is really cool.
Kelly Brook: It’s just great to be involved, you can tell because the atmosphere is so fantastic today and so many people have turned out.
Man 1: Its massive, its amazing how many people are here today.
Gethin Jones: A lot of people commute on their bikes, a lot of people do it for fun, and you see today there are families here today with all types of contraptions on the back of their bikes, cycling really is for everyone.
Sir Chris Hoy: It’s not about elite performance, its not about winning gold medals at the Olympic Games, it’s about people coming down and riding their bikes and having fun.
Man 2: On your bike.
Woman 1: It’s been really good fun, all the children, all the adults; we’ve had a wonderful day.
Girl 1, 2 & 3: It was cool, because it was very different without cars on the road.
Man 3: Its nice and safe, it’s been great out on the roads.
Boris Johnson: It’s good for people, its good for the individual and its good for London.
Boy 2: Lots of people from all around London, it’s just fun to be cycling really.
Group of children: Go Skyride.
Boris Johnson: It’s brilliant, it is good isn’t it.