Singapore’s biggest cycling festival, OCBC Cycle 2015 took place over two days recently on the 29th and 30th August 2015. Spread over two days, catering to different groups of cyclists, from the young children, social cyclists and competitive cyclists, there was something for the cycling community in Singapore to enjoy and have fun at Singapore’s biggest cycling festival.
On Saturday 29th August 2015, the morning belonged to the children enjoying the sporting and recreational fun of cycling with The Mighty Savers Family Ride and Mighty Savers Kids Ride.
There was a new cycling event at the OCBC Cycle 2015, the OCBC Cycle Speedway. This was the first time for this competitive cycling format to be implemented and it was a very interesting sports photography event for me to cover, photograph and share with my readers. There were two competitive categories, the OCBC Cycle Speedway Club Championship and OCBC Cycle Speedway S.E.A Championship.
Here’s a quick summary of the OCBC Cycle Speedway Championship competition details –
Number of riders per team: 4
Number of laps to be completed: 10
Competition course distance: 1km
The 4 riders in each team will ride a total of 10 laps in pairs around a fast and flat 1km course. The first 2 riders will ride 5 laps before passing a wrist band to their team mates, the second pair of riders to continue the remaining 5 laps. This competitive cycling format is the first of its kind in the region and possibly the world!
Our iconic Singapore Sports Hub played host to the inaugural OCBC Cycle Speedway Championships, spectators were able to watch and enjoy the fast and furious competitive cycling close up action from the sidelines of the road or a bird’s eye view from above at the overhead bridge. This format is not just about speed or cycling fast and furious, there are tactics to be discussed, the change over and handing over of the wrist band to your team mates.
From a sports enthusiast and a sports photographer perspective, this competitive cycling format is interesting and can have the appeal to attract more cyclists in future OCBC Cycle events since 2015 was the first time this racing format was being conducted. Even though this was the first year of OCBC Cycle Speedway Championship, the competitors were pretty competitive and fast, from both the cycling clubs and countries representatives!
Here’s a summary of the winners of the OCBC Cycle Speedway Championships
Club Championship
1st Place – Joyriders Racing Team 1 – 18mins 54seconds
2nd Place – Geylang Cycling Team – 18mins 55seconds
3rd Place – Specialised Mavericks 2 – 18mins 56seconds
S.E.A Championship
1st Place – Team Malaysia – 18mins 44seconds
2nd Place – Team Singapore – 22mins 44seconds
3rd Place – Team Brunei – 22mins 54seconds
On the 30th August 2015, the second day of OCBC Cycle 2015, the cycling community came down for a morning of fun, non-competitive cycling – the Sportive Ride (42km) and The Straits Times Ride (23km), starting at the Singapore Sports Hub and the finishing point was inside the National Stadium. 4600 cyclists took part in the Sportive Ride and 2200 cyclists took part in The Straits Time Ride, riding to iconic Singapore landscapes and sceneries such as the Marina Bay Sands, Gardens By The Bay, Singapore Flyer, East Coast Park and also a journey to the West side of Singapore via the Keppel viaduct. I didn’t get to participate in the community rides and I would love to do it in the future.
It had been a interesting and fun 2 days of cycling festival at the OCBC Cycle 2015, Singapore’s biggest cycling festival. Maybe next year, I should participate in the non-competitive community rides and take many photographs!
Created with flickr slideshow.