The wheels come off Diss Cyclathon for this year

The brakes have been put on a hugely popular cycling and family day in Diss this year, after nobody could be found to take on the event.

Organisers of the Diss Cyclathon, which had over the last four years around 1,000 riders taking on 25, 50 and 100 mile rides annually and raising more than £40,000 for charities, broke the news on its website.

The statement read: “We’re sorry to have to let you know that Diss Cyclathon won’t happen in 2020. We thought we’d worked out a way with The Pedal Revolution for them to take it over and run it but, as we went further in to the details, we jointly realised that wasn’t going to be workable.

“It is a shame and a loss to Diss but was a great event over the four years it ran, raised over £40,000 for local charities, won national recognition and, more importantly, was great fun and got lots of people out on their bikes in the beautiful countryside of Norfolk and Suffolk.”

“Thank you for your support over those four years.”

The event was founded by Neil Collins, Jess Cook, and Alan Franks, who said they could no longer dedicate their time to the cyclathon, at the end of last year.

They were prepared to help a new team take over the event and step aside, but no one could take it on.

Mr Collins, said: “From our perspective it is disappointing, we got around a thousand riders a year and raised tens of thousands of pounds, but it is just one of those things.

“Organising it wasn’t the hard bit for us, the thing we are all most proud of though was getting youngsters and their families out on their bikes every year,

“It is easy to get some middle-aged men out in their Lycra on bikes, but to get families out there, enjoying the roads around Diss which is fantastic cycling country is what we are most proud of.”

The Diss Cyclathon also won an award in 2018, named Best Cycling Event in Cycling UK’s Volunteer of the Year Awards and Mr Collins thanked everyone for helping make Diss Cyclathon such a big thing.

He said: “We are all incredibly flattered that so many people, volunteers and riders supported us, with such a breadth of riders too, from the seasoned cyclists who do hundreds of miles a week to those that were getting back on a bike or doing it for the first time, we thank you all for the support over the years.”