Last Sunday (1 September) saw over 900 cyclists flood the roads of Anglesey for the first ever instalment of the Tour de Mon.
The brand new event is a cycle sportive organised by local sports events producers, Always Aim High Events, which takes riders through some of the most beautiful locations on the stunning island of Anglesey.
The 2013 Tour de Mon was wholeheartedly supported by the local community and not only did hundreds of spectators and supporters flock into the event village at Newry Beach in Holyhead, to enjoy the festival atmosphere and family attractions, but there were also countless supporters lining the roads of Anglesey to cheer and applaud the cyclists as they progressed on the 106-mile Mawr, 75-mile Canol and 40-mile Bach routes.
The Tour de Mon was also noticeably a community event due to the number of local groups and societies who volunteered to help out. There were representatives from Anglesey Air Cadets, Aberglasyn Mountain Rescue Team, Llanerchymedd Football Club, Menai Bridge Rugby Club and Mon CF to name but a few, and major support also came from Ynys Mon Council, in conjunction with the Welsh Government and the Ymweld a Mon initiative.
One of the stand-out moments of the Tour de Mon was the Flying Mile or ‘Milltir Mellten’ (as it’s known locally). The ‘Flying Mile’ is a perfectly straight, uninterrupted timed sprint on the runway at RAF Valley. The Flying Mile is the only competitive section of the Tour de Mon and the winner, Tom Hodgkinson, was awarded the Christopher Wright Memorial Award. Christopher Wright was a keen local cyclist who sadly passed away last September.
The fastest rider around the 106-mile Mawr course was Andy Ashurst, who covered the 106 miles in just 5 hours and 2 mins. Cycling is not Andy’s only speciality as he also used to compete at the pole vault at international level, representing Great Britain in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Earlier in the day over 100 family riders had also joined the cyclo-sportive riders in their efforts on the Tour de Mon, as they embarked on the 6.5 mile Tour de Teulu ride, which was started by Anglesey MP Albert Owen.
Event organiser and Always Aim High Events Director, Nigel Kendrick, was overjoyed with how well the event went and was very grateful to the people and communities of Anglesey for their support.
“We are delighted with how the event has gone. The support from the beginning has been simply breathtaking – over 800 people registered online to cycle the Tour and we had another 100 sign up on the day. We always knew that Anglesey was a fabulous place to cycle and we really feel like the Tour de Mon proved that.
The feedback we have had so far has been incredible, both riders and supporters have got in touch to tell us what a fantastic time they had. We put the success of this event down not just to the beautiful location but also down to the support we have received from the local community. The number of different community groups who volunteered is incredible and we are so grateful for all their help. Additionally the support from the residents of Anglesey has been fantastic and we hope they come out in force again in 2014.
We are looking forward to next year already. We intend to build from the experience of this year’s event to make the 2014 Tour de Mon one of the best cycle sportives in the country.
We also want to give a special thank you to Anglesey County Council and RAF Valley for their support during the organisation of this event”.
Full results for the 2013 Tour de Mon can be found at the TDL Events Services website via this link.
Further info on the Tour de Mon and the entire Always Aim High Events roster, can be found at the company website (http://alwaysaimhighevents.com/).
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