Shropshire Star

Newport Nocturne: Night riders pull in crowd of 15,000

The Newport Nocturne was back with a bang at the weekend, with organisers estimating up to 15,000 people turned out for the event.

Published
Newport Nocturne

Returning for the first time in four years, those behind the massive floodlit cycling event were unsure how well it was going to be received.

But Nick Jeggo, co-organiser, said it had been a pleasant surprise.

“It went really well,” he said. “You’re bringing it back after four years, and there’s a lot of people who don’t know what the Nocturne is.

“We had to re-educate people, and the other thing is that the world has changed since the last one. These things are more social media based now – it’s a bit more complicated than it was. You don’t know how well that stuff translates into people actually coming, but it clearly went well because the crowd was massive.”

As well as the key things that has given the Nocturne its fantastic reputation nationally, the team brought in some new ideas for 2018’s race.

From a giant screen to a public ride for non-elites to try out the course, Nick said it had all added to spectacular support from the crowd.

“Someone told me it was like a street party with bikes,” he said.

“You’ve got bands, you’ve got food and commentary. it all went down really well. The public ride was a new thing. We were unsure how many people would bring their bikes, but it was really busy. Lots of people have said if we do it again, they’ll bring along their bikes.

MORE:

“You have to keep moving these events along, and we’ve improved quite a bit. The riders appreciated it. They love performing in front of enthusiastic crowds.”

Although Nick said this year’s event had proven a big success, he said it was still too early to decide whether they will hold another one.

But whatever happens, it is unlikely it will return in 2019. We need to get over this one before we make any decisions,” Nick said. “We need to have a debrief and make sure we can do it again. I wouldn’t be looking at next year, it would be two years, but there’s a lot of tidying up to do.

“It’s best not to rush into any decisions. We’ll probably decide something in two or three weeks.”

This year’s event was held in memory of Nick’s father, Mick, a stalwart of Newport life and principal organiser of the event in previous years.

“A lot of people said they were pleased we did it again because of my dad,” Nick said. “I hope we did him proud.”