Perth bids for stake in tour de force with Velofest

WA’S Velofest would sit alongside Australia’s two premier cycling events as part of a plan to bring the world’s biggest teams Down Under.

WA’S Velofest would sit alongside Australia’s two premier cycling events as part of a plan to bring the world’s biggest teams Down Under.

Velofest – previously known as the Perth Festival of Cycling – will take place later this month in an expanded format, including the UCI World Cycling Tour Perth, the Woodside Tour de Perth and an Elite Para-cycling competition.

Organiser Craig Smith-Gander said he was confident the growing event could reach the same level of prestige as the country’s largest cycling meets to attract big drawcards to the state.

“My intention is to do what Oceanian Cycling wants us to do, which is to be a part of an Oceania Series,” he said.

“After the Tour Down Under (in Adelaide) is run, which is a world tour event, they then have the Herald Sun Tour in Victoria and there’s a similar event in New Zealand.

“What they would like to see ideally is a third Australian event in Perth, which then becomes part of a calendar of events in Oceania which will attract the big teams to come. That’s the grand aim.

“I’d like to see Velofest have a component which is of the same – if not better – standard than the Herald Sun Tour, which is one of the oldest events on the Australian cycling calendar and is a fabulous event.

“I can’t see any reason why we can’t put an event of that stature on in WA, which would have five or six of the pro tour teams here and full-on live television coverage.”

A former competitive cyclist, Smith-Gander said he was in discussions with the sport’s key stakeholders to promote Velofest to a UCI-categorised event next year, meaning bigger teams like Orica-Greenedge would be allowed to come and compete.

For this year’s event, the talented Drapac team will be a significant drawcard in the Tour de Perth, which forms the opening stage on the National Road Series calendar.

“As the event grows, I’ve got linkages into the management of the bigger teams,” Smith-Gander said.

“One of the reasons Drapac is coming is because Henk Vogels – who’s one of their coaches – is a good friend of mine.

“As soon as we started to increase the significance of this, I started to talk to Drapac about coming over.

“As we grow the event in future years, I’ll be using the same sort of linkages I’ve got into some of the bigger professional teams to convince them to come to Perth.”

Follow Chris Robinson on Twitter: @CJKRobinson