Guildford Town Centre Races
The Guildford Town Centre Races were first promoted by Charlotteville Cycling Club in 1984 as part of Guildford Festival. The route was the same as it is today, a small circuit of North Street, Market Street and a climb of the cobbled High Street. The first race was attended by 2000 spectators. Southern Veteran-Cycle Club Ripley Section rode two laps on veteran machines. The oldest was a French Michaux velocipede of about 1868. There were also two high “Ordinaires” of about 1880 and a Singer solid-tyred safety of 1890.
The Town Centre Races were the idea of Les Smith, Mike Willimott and Stuart Campbell who promoted them for the first ten years. Since 1984 the races have been cancelled in 1995, 1999 and 2000 due to roadworks or builders’ scaffolding on the road.
Read more about this topic: Charlotteville Cycling Club
Famous quotes containing the words town, centre and/or races:
“The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Late in the afternoon we passed a man on the shore fishing with a long birch pole.... The characteristics and pursuits of various ages and races of men are always existing in epitome in every neighborhood. The pleasures of my earliest youth have become the inheritance of other men. This man is still a fisher, and belongs to an era in which I myself have lived.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)