We spent a wet and windy week in Harrogate whilst the best road racers from around the world competed for the title of UCI Road Champion 2019. There were route changes, crashes and winners crowned. It also rained a lot.
We arrived on Wednesday 25th September and managed to set-up our stand in the Fan Zone. The arena was full of entertaining activities allowing everyone to join in and feel part of a privileged event that may not return to the UK for many years.
We were ready for the weekend...raincoats on standby
The spectators who arrived on Thursday had a chance to sample the Fan Zone before anyone else as most of the traders, activities, and shows arrived on Wednesday Evening. It rained most of the day but that didn’t dampen people’s excitement before the Junior races rolled into Harrogate.
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Friday was a wash-out for most of the day but the spectators still lined the street to watch the Male and Female Under 23’s race. The wet conditions made it slippery on the roads which caused some drama in the last few kilometres of the races. Once again, the Fan Zone had plenty to do and extra resources with plastic walkway grids placed so that people could easily walk around the area. The rain kept falling but spectators were happy to try our demo locks and listen to our story, as well as enter the competition to win a free Litelok Gold Wearable.
The rain didn't stop people coming to enter our competition.
It was also good to see other brands supporting the event such as Hexr who make custom helmets to suit the shape of your head with their state of the art head scanner. The Litelok team even had their heads scanned and it was pretty impressive. Muc-off were also there with their range of cleaning products, Continental Tyres who are renowned for making some of the best road tyres on the market such as the GP5000 Tubeless tyre, but the most quirky stand had to go to the inflatable dinosaurs which were popular with the younger fans. Lastly, Castelli and Rapha were also selling a limited edition run of custom jerseys which were different each day to commemorate the UCI Road World Championships coming to Harrogate, this was very popular with cyclists and the custom jerseys were not on the shelves for long.
The sun finally appeared on Saturday and the atmosphere in the Fan Zone was electric for the Elite Women's Race.
Blue skies and warmer temperatures made Saturday the perfect day to enjoy everything the Fan Zone had to offer, with the race circuit easily accessible in various areas. We even managed to quickly run to the feed zone section of the race to see some of the best names in Women’s cycling such as Annemiek Van Vleuten and GB’s Anna Henderson. The Netherlands displayed their dominance again with three of their team within the top 6. It was also a great day for us on the stand, we managed to speak to hundreds of people from all around the world who gave us some great responses to our product. It was really interesting to talk to cycling enthusiasts from various countries who are dedicated to following the UCI Road World Championships.
Unfortunately, the weather managed to interfere with proceedings in the Fan Zone and the Elite Men's Road Race on Sunday.
As you can see from the above images, Sunday was the opposite. The rain poured down turning the Fan Zone into a swimming pool. This resulted in the Fan Zone being closed due to floods and people's safety being the main concern. We managed to pack-up early and enjoy some thrilling racing between some of the world’s best road cyclists with a warm cup of Yorkshire Tea. Litelok’s prediction was that Sagan would set the pace of the lead group which wasn’t the case at all! The shock of Mathieu Van Der Poel suffering a double puncture (in his legs) meant that it was all to play for. In the end, it was the Denmark underdog Mads Pedersen took Gold and the Rainbow jersey for 2019.
Lastly, a big thanks to everyone who took the time to come see us at in the Fan Zone. We heard some great stories from existing customers who currently use our locks and from people who have travelled far and wide to be at the event, we hope that you enjoyed the UCI Road World Championships as much as we did!
How was your UCI Road Championships Experience? Please let us know in the comments.
