The organisers of the popular Newport Nocturne cycle event – which attracted a record crowd of 15,000 to the 2010 race at the weekend – have now set their sights on hosting the national road race championships.

Nocturne chief Nick Jeggo said he wanted to freshen the town’s race up, with the national championships guaranteed to attract the sport’s top names such as Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas.

Jeggo said: “We would like to see a return to hosting the national championships. It would take some planning and we would look to do it for maybe 2012 or 2013, but it’s something we have in the pipeline.

“We have had the championships here in the past (1989) and we would want to use a similar six mile circuit to that.

“The town would need to get behind it, but hopefully they would.

“We haven’t investigated the costs and I’m sure the cost of barriers and road closures and health and safety would be thousands.

“But hopefully an event like that would help bring in the big sponsor that we need.

“Everyone wants to wear the British Road Racing jersey in major events so we would be guaranteed to get a really good quality field.

“If we were to get the road race then we would get TV coverage and we’d be able to put a big screen up in the High Street so people would be able to watch the race.

“It would also have a ladies race either the day before or on the same day so we would get top riders like Nicole Cooke entering. We could make it much more of a weekend event.”

Mr Jeggo said his ambitious plans were in the early stages but admitted the Nocturne was unlikely to return it its current format.

He said: “The Nocturne was a success this year but the sport is getting bigger and as a result it is getting more expensive.”

By ALEX JAMES