Business

Ex-IBD and World Masters cyclo-cross champ Mick Ives has helped the CTC to make Llanwrtyd Wells the CTCs first Cycle Centre. Five more towns will get the same label within the next six months. Cycle Centres will have classic road and dirt cycle routes radiating out from them

This is the best funded of the UK bicycle portals, backed with $1.4m of seed capital. It has eschewed commerce but offers plenty of community and content. Its also got an excellent chopped-down database of 900 IBDs, many with websites for consumers to link in to.

The 485 mile West Midlands loop of the National Byway plugged by Loyd Grossman helped Midlands Electricity (MEB) walk away with the Hollis Award for the best Corporate Sponsorship programme of 1999

Its billed as the ultimate network for active outdoor sports. It has received funding of £4m (one of the last start-up sport dot.coms to benefit from venture capital over-optimism?) and it will create the UKs biggest web-based network of destination sites for active outdoor sport enthusiasts, including mountain bikers. How many portals will still be around in two years? The low-budget, non-enthusiast ones will survive, what about the big spenders?

According to a report in yesterdays Guardian, the American owner of Asda is to open four standalone Wal-Marts this year. Unlike Asda, US Wal-Marts major on non-grocery items. Wal-Mart is Americas biggest retailer of bicycles (including quality mid-market bikes from Mongoose)

The Barton on Humber company has won the annual Humberside Exporter of the Year award

In response to Clockwork's retiral from the SCU series we have decided to promote our own Downhill series throughout May and June, writes Rod from Revolution, a two-location IBD that wants to keep grass roots downhilling alive

With many British cities becoming go-slow areas at peak traffic times and hotspots there will be a growing number of motorists who will ditch the car at ring roads and go the rest of the way by cycle

The four store Leisure Lakes chain is soon to be five strong after taking over the lease for BikeTech of Cheltenham, one of the former Caratti-run IBDs

A news story at www.bicycleretailer.com relates that Schwinn bikes are now available in Halfords. The background to this story was supplied to Bicycle Retailer by www.bikebiz.co.uk after one of their journos wondered what Halfords was