For the first time ever, the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) held all the World Championships for every cycling discipline (other than cyclocross) at the same time in the same place. They chose Glasgow to be the first hosts of this multi discipline event and what a 10 days it proved to be.
We at Big Bobble Hats had known about this exciting event for some time as we are Official Partners of the UCI for The Cyclocross World Championships between 2023-2026.. As it was in our home city we wanted to make the absolute most of the event as we knew it was unlikely to happen again in our lifetime.
For the past year, we had been working on how to get our brand out there at as many events as possible and in stepped Santini. Santini are an Italian cycling clothing brand who are also Official Partners and provide the coveted Rainbow Stripes jerseys for all the champions. They also have the rights to sell official rainbow stripes merchandise so it was a match made in heaven.
After a lot of planning and preparation, Santini arrived with their big blue truck and we spent 3 days sorting out clothing and hats to be taken to all of the sites. Big Bobble Hats were tasked with setting up at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome for the track racing and indoor cycling, Fort William for the Downhill Mountain Biking and Glasgow Green for the BMX and Trials bikes.
Fort William took place over the first few days of the event and what a blast we had up there. As usual Fort Bill provided all the weather conditions and all the midges! We had so much fun meeting so many people from all around the world. After 2 days of racing the elite men and women were crowned as World Champions and Team GB came away with their first world champion. Congratulations to Charlie Hatton. What a result!
The Velodrome action took place over seven days and was abuzz with excitement from the first session. We were very busy with people wanting to come away with a momento of their time there. GBR won a fair few medals at the track with one of the most memorable being the Women’s Team Pursuit. The Women just pipped New Zealand to the post and what an emotional gold medal it was for Katie Archibald, with not a dry eye in the house. One of the most unique features of the track racing was the inclusion of para athletes alongside able bodied racing for the first time. A great success and what a way to celebrate sport for all. We then stayed on at the Velodrome for the indoor cycling, cycle ball (our new favourite sport) and artistic cycling (so skilful). A real family atmosphere was in evidence at the indoor cycling even though they had a party room for after the action finished. All in all our 10 days at the Velodrome was a lot of hard work but mainly fun!
Finally we are at Glasgow Green where all the BMX and Trials bike action was taking place. It had a very different feel here as we were situated away from all the cycling action. Again lots of medal success here for Team GB with Kieran Reilly securing Gold in BMX Park and Jack Carthy securing the gold in Mens Elite 26”. The rain mainly stayed off as well which was a bonus.
On the final Sunday we managed to have a well earned day off as all the stands had closed and we were lucky enough to get our hands on some VIP tickets for the women’s road race. What a day! The sun shone, the people of Glasgow came out in full force to support the women and what a race it proved to be with Lotte Kopecky taking the honours. Our very own Anna Shackley from Glasgow cam away with a Bronze in the U23 Women’s race which rounded off the Championships in style.
As the saying goes, ‘don’t be sad that its over be happy that it happened!’
All in all the Games were a huge success for Team GB topping both the Elite and Para tables for most medals (how good are are we at cycling!) and our partnership with Santini proving successful for both companies.
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