The immediate future of the oldest bike race in NSW, Australia, the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle...
Sydney's Harbour Bridge (Image credit: AFP)
Goulburn targets UCI status, Harbour bridge in 2008
The immediate future of the oldest bike race in NSW, Australia, the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic, is assured for another two years with Wednesday's announcement that banking giant, the Citi Group, will be the naming rights sponsor for the 2007 event. With the funding secured, the race is now taking on big plans including UCI status and a trip over the Harbour bridge for 2008. Jane Aubrey reports from Sydney.
First held in 1902, the Goulburn to Sydney Cycle Classic has become a mainstay of the New South Wales racing calendar, and anew deal will make sure the future editions of the race will be even more prestigious. The 2007 edition, to be held on Sunday, September 23 will be dubbed the 'Goulburn to Citi' after the Citi Group stepped up to naming sponsor of the event. The riders will take a 170km route that leaves the regional centre of Goulburn, south-west of Sydney, and heads across the Great Dividing Range to arrive on the outskirts of Australia's largest city.
Citi has signed a deal that covers the event until 2008, taking total sponsorship to around $85,000 per year. The 2007 event will be televised on delay nationally on SBS Television and will include a team's classification to be contested by the Australian teams registered with the UCI, including the Professional Continental team, Drapac Porsche, as well as Continental squads FRF Couriers-NSW Institute of Sport, and Adelaide's Savings & Loans.
The new sponsorship is a big boost for the race which was forced into a five-year hiatus from 2000 to 2004, and now its return has gone from strength to strength, with plans to take 'the Goulburn' to the next level.
