Sweetspot, the organisers of the Tour of Britain announced today that this year’s race attracted a total of four million. One million of those saw the action at the side of the British roads, while the other three million saw the race on TV on the daily hour long ITV4 broadcast.
A highlight for the organisers was the London finale on 19th September; the roads of London were closed for a sports event for the very first time. An estimated 150,000 turned out to see the race on the Westminster circuit, which took in many of the British capital’s most iconic landmarks.
“The 2009 race was a great success,” said Hugh Roberts, CEO of the race organisers. “The crowd numbers, and the number of school children that attended the race were a big step forward for us, and this shows that cycling as a sport is growing exponentially in its national popularity. We at The Tour of Britain are extremely pleased to be a key part of this process.”
In addition to the Tour itself, a mass-participation ride in aid of one of the race’s partners: the Prostate Cancer Charity was also declared a success. The ride, said to be the first of its kind in the UK, gave amateur riders the chance to ride three distances including the full course of stage 5 of the race to and from Stoke-on-Trent.
“The Prostate Cancer Charity Tour Ride proved to be a huge success with over 1300 cyclists taking part in the inaugural event,” said Roberts. “The feedback from riders who took part has been overwhelmingly positive and we are planning, together with The Prostate Cancer Charity, to put on more mass participation rides linked to The Tour of Britain in 2010. Our aim is to bring people together on their bicycles in aid of a good cause, while also getting healthier in the process and having a fantastic day out.”