Harrogate set to host North of England's first major cycle expo - here's what to expect:

Harrogate is set to host the first major cycling expo in the North of England, welcoming some of the biggest names and brands in the industry.
The Cycle Expo Yorkshire team with cycling star, Lizzie Deignan and XSEM's, Charlotte Scouler (second from right).The Cycle Expo Yorkshire team with cycling star, Lizzie Deignan and XSEM's, Charlotte Scouler (second from right).
The Cycle Expo Yorkshire team with cycling star, Lizzie Deignan and XSEM's, Charlotte Scouler (second from right).

The three day event at the Great Yorkshire Showground will serve as a forerunner to the UCI World Road Championships which arrive in town in September 2019.

The event is a partnership between Leeds-based events management company, XSEM, and Welcome To Yorkshire.

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Cycle Expo Yorkshire team member, Charlotte Scouler, explained the inspiration behind the brainchild.

She said: “We are a marketing events agency by trade, based in Leeds and run very large scale events around the country and overseas.

“18 months ago we decided we wanted to have our own event where it’s actually ours and we are not doing it on behalf of a client.

“We came up with the idea of cycling because we have some cycling fanatics within the business but also with cycling becoming much more prevalent within the Yorkshire region and with the news breaking that we are hosting the UCI we thought it would be a fantastic time to launch our event.

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Soon after XSEM approached Welcome To Yorkshire CEO Sir Gary Verity and various traders in the cycling industry to establish if there would be any interest for such an event.

Charlotte said: “We were absolutely blown away by the response that we had. Everybody has said ‘yes! why isn’t there already something like this in the north!’”

The event starts with a trade and press day on Friday October 12 before opening to the public on Saturday, 13 and Sunday, 14.

There will be sofa sessions with star cyclists Lizzie Deignan, Ruby Isaac, Andy Tennant, Scott Thwaites, Jack Carthy and BMX world record holder, Matti Hemmings.

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As well as trade stands and exhibitions from the biggest to the smallest brands in the industry, visitors will also have countless opportunities to put the bikes on show to the test.

As Charlotte puts it: “The showground has 250 acres of mixed terrain which really lends itself to an event of this kind.”

As well as various demo tracks and test zones including a woodland track there will be e-bikes and Tacx virtual races.