2013 - What a glorious weekend it was

Thanks to all the riders that came to ride with us at the weekend as the Newcastleton Cycling Festival goes from strength to strength. We had a bumper turn out for the Copshaw Cracker Hill Climb TT on Friday with reigning champion Ross Laidlaw smashing 5 minutes off last year's time.

Those riders that did brave the freezing early morning temperatures for the sportives on Saturday and Sunday were rewarded with glorious views and practically traffic free roads, topped off nicely with a cup of tea and slice of cake on their return.

Thank you to our sponsors: Accelerade for providing the nutrition, Saddle Skedaddle for the broom wagon, BikeSeven for the tech support and Joolze Dymond photography.

Thanks also to the guys from Rock UK for volunteering throughout, Sally for baking her yummy feed station flapjack, the Copshaw Kitchen for the post-ride cakes, Steve at Kielder Village Store, The Grapes Hotel for the incredible "Tablet" (the sugary blocks at the feeds), Karen and Giles for making tea, Lee for excellent twitter updates and finally the residents of Newcastleton, the NBF and Visit Newcastleton for their support.

The times of the hill climb TT and the sportives are now available on the News page. Photographs will be available from our official photographer, Joolze Dymond photography, soon.

The Newcastleton Cross-Border Classic Sportives presented in association with nutrition brand Accelerade and Visit Newcastleton.

The Copshaw Cracker Hill Climb TT

Following on from the success of last year's hill climb time trial, held during the Newcastleton Cycling Festival, the "Race to Bagdad" will be held the night before the sportive weekend on Friday 5th April.

Once again riders will announce their finish by ringing the Bagdad Bell, an antique ship's bell owned by Trevor Cambridge, the proprietor of the Grapes Hotel in Newcastleton.

Starting in the village centre the route climbs 800ft out over open moorland towards Langholm for around 4 miles, taking last year's winner, Langholm Cycling Club's Ross Laidlaw, just over 20 minutes to complete; and the top under 16 rider, Neil Robertson from Newcastleton, finished in a very respectable 30 minutes.

For more details and entry go to the Event Info page.

Rider Comments

"Thank you for a brilliant event! Loved both days, lovely routes, very little traffic, great organisation, friendly helpers - perfect." Miriam & Graham Adcock.

"Nice scenery, well signposted, mostly very quiet roads, reasonably challenging, well placed drink stops, good supply of cake and very friendly organisers." Kirsty Anderson (English Long Route)