BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

"It would be a real loss to the world of cycling, if this year’s event were to be the last," said Phillip Darnton in a letter to BA members. He proposes to tout for an outside-of-the-bike-trade sponsor for Bike Week but is open to an offer of £25k from a bicycle business.

Gary Imlach, now a fully-blooded afficiando of pro cycle sport, is to produce a history slot for ITV's coverage of the centenary Tour de France. The ITV2 coverage will be in primetime, with a repeat on ITV1 late at night.

According to a report in this morning's Guardian newspaper, London's mayor wants to attract the 2006 Tour de France to London. Two years is a woefully short space of time to organise such a mammoth undertaking but Ken Livingstone, responsible for pushing through the £5 congestion charge thereby making cycling in London much easier, is getting more and more pro cycling by the day. Livingstone will be able to plead his case in September when he gives a talk at Velo-City, this year held in Paris

After the success of last year's VIP trip for three IBDs to the Giro d'Italia, Steve Fenton of the European Cycle Development Agency took another three customers this year

Sturmey Archer's Phoenix S80 RD8 - a product on the drawing boad for years - will take centre stage in a ground floor presentation area in The Hub, a two-tier stand with an upper lounge for press interviews and VIP autograph signing. The Cycle 2003 show, eighty percent filled, takes place at Islington's Business Design Centre in September