Bike festival’s back and it’s bigger and better

The Coupar Angus Cycling Festival is back for 2017.

And organisers have promised that this year it is going to be even bigger and better than before, with eight days of cycling-related activities, events and races in and around the east Perthshire town.

Some of the new events planned for this year’s festival include a children’s mountain bike championships and a school cycling day for local primary schools.

The festival will get under way on Saturday, June 10 with a free celebration of all things cycling-related in Larghan Park.

There will be children’s cycling races, cycling skills courses and obstacles, and a bike test zone to try adapted bicycles, electric bikes and many other pedalpowered modes of transport.

There will also be a BMX, skate jam and a range of stalls.

That weekend also sees the return of the Ballo Enduro mountain bike event, with practice days on the Saturday and the race taking place on the Sunday.

There will be a number of events in the lead up to the festival, including a school cycling championships for pupils in P7 classes and secondary schools, the school cycling sports day for primary schools, mountain bike rides and road rides to suit all abilities of cyclists, a film night, and a talk by Coupar Angus cycling development officer Grant Murdoch.

The event will come to a close on Sunday, June 18, with the Big Sunday cycle. A number of road rides of various lengths will leave from Larghan Park, returning later in the day for a barbecue.

Grant said: “This is the fourth year of the Coupar Angus Cycling Festival now and it just keeps getting better and better.

“Around 1000 people enjoyed the various events and activities we put on last year and this year we are hoping for even more people to get involved, particularly youngsters through the events we are running with the schools in the area during the festival week.

“For us it is all about promoting cycling to as many people as possible and promoting its benefits, and we hope that people will get on board with that and get involved.”

For further information find the cycling hub on social media sites Facebook and Twitter.