{"id":329735,"date":"2025-12-07T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329735\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:00:09","slug":"first-step-towards-the-resurgence-of-british-cycling-london-nocturne-criterium-set-to-return-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/329735\/","title":{"rendered":"First step towards the resurgence of British cycling? London Nocturne criterium set to return in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nNew course and expanded programme<\/p>\n

For its return, Pope plans a redesigned circuit and a broader schedule to make it more attractive than before. \u201cThis new event, I wanted to be bigger and better, so I proposed two things to the City of London. I said, \u2018Can we have a new race circuit, higher profile, that goes through Bank junction?\u2019 So that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been working on, with a really iconic, city-skyline backdrop. You\u2019ve got St Paul\u2019s Cathedral at one end of the course, and the Bank of England and Royal Exchange at the other end. The other key development is to go to two days, so Friday and Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope said he hopes to attract a mix of domestic and international riders. \u201cI want the field to be an international field, albeit predominantly domestic riders,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to cover travel expenses, maybe pay a few people appearance fees, but we\u2019re not going to have a massive budget to do that. I\u2019m hoping to get a handful of international WorldTour riders on the men\u2019s and women\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the selection of riders will only become clear once teams have finalised their 2026 calendars. Pope also intends to televise the elite races through a \u201ctraditional broadcaster,\u201d arguing that greater visibility could help energise the UK racing scene. \u201cI think there is an opportunity to bring in a new level of televised, major-city racing. My aim is that it just gives another boost to the UK racing scene and plays a part in this kind of renaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Geraint<\/p>\n

Geraint Thomas was the winner of the\u00a0London Nocturne criterium back in 2008<\/p>\n

Looking to strengthen the domestic racing pyramid<\/p>\n

Pope described the current structure of British racing and the role he hopes the Nocturne could play. \u201cIf you look at it as a pyramid, in that middle-bottom, there is a thriving race scene, then you\u2019ve got the Tours of Britain at the top, and I\u2019m hoping to try and create something in between the two that helps elevate the whole scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of the first edition, which took place in 2007, he recalled: \u201cWe really didn\u2019t know what to expect. Rapha and Condor came up with the idea to do a race, approached me and Fran [Millar, Pope\u2019s business partner at the time], and said, \u2018Hey, do you think you can organise it?\u2019 And we just went for it. I think about 4,000-5,000 people showed up, we won an award, and it grew from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event stopped in 2018 after its organising company, Face Partnership, went into administration. \u201cThere was nothing wrong with the Nocturne, per se. It was more just collateral damage from what went wrong with the parent business. As an event itself, it was profitable, it was a great event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope’s ambition is for the City of London Nocturne to help other British cities to host similar criteriums in the future. \u201cIf we can make the London event a success, then potentially we can look to try and replicate it in one or two other major cities in the UK. That\u2019s my goal. I\u2019m going to take it one step at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New course and expanded programme For its return, Pope plans a redesigned circuit and a broader schedule…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,16057,145426,145427,82,636],"class_list":["post-329735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-geraint-thomas","tag-hannah-barnes","tag-singapore-criterium","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}