Bike Week on track to be the biggest yet

This year’s Bike Week event is set to be the biggest yet, due in no small part to the backing of energy giant EDF’s Team Green Britain.

EDF has signed up to support the annual cycle celebration for three years – rebranded Team Green Britain’s Bike Week and told BikeBiz that it can help make this year’s event – running from June 19th to 27th – the largest so far.

“We’ve got close to a million members in Team Green Britain,” Rob Merringon, senior manager of brand communications at EDF Energy told BikeBiz. “The Team Green Britain members are all like-minded, and that membership base enables us to start communicating to them positively about the events during Bike Week. We can spread the word to them and immediately bring considerable scale to it.”

Merrington revealed that sign ups for Bike Week are already ahead of last year.

EDF and Team Green Britain’s involvement will also provide practical help for Bike Week organisers, particularly in assisting with local events. Through special workshops taking place across the country, previous event organisers are passing on knowledge and experiences to fellow organisers, helping create further success.

Merrington told us: “We’ve launched 12 workshops across the UK on how to run a successful Team GB Bike Week event, and they have done really well. At the workshops, former event organisers are sharing experiences and that’s obviously practical help. It’s the whole point of Team Green Britain, working together – it’s one of the areas we can help in.

“We’ve also got tailored guides to help support the can attract between 500 to 1,000 for example – so there are different event guides.

“We also work with a chap called Tony Radcliffe and he is a pro triathlete qualified in sustainability. He’s been able to show people how to run a sustainable Bike Week event. We’ve also got the revamped website, giving organisers more information, plus we have got merchandising and branded material that we can supply for local activities.

“We’ve been able to bring a substantial step change to Bike Week,” Merrington concluded.