It will be party time in Winchcombe when the Tour of Britain whizzes through the town next weekend.

Winchcombe Cycling Club will be at the heart of the fun as all things cycling are celebrated in and around Gloucestershire on Saturday 9th September.

Some of the biggest names in British sport – Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas to name just two – will be taking part in the country’s premier cycling race and it’s not just cycling fans who are being invited to the shindig in Winchcombe.

“It should be a great day,” said Winchcombe Cycling Club official Jim Davies. “We want as many people to turn up and support the event as possible.

“It’s an all-day event, even though the cyclists will be in and out of the town in a flash.

“We’ve got the Gloucestershire Bike Project coming and they’re providing a free doctor bike service. It’s a bike MOT and where possible minor repairs on a bike for free.

“We also have a healthy bike smoothie machine which if you pedal makes a smoothie.

“The town’s shops and pubs are also getting behind the event and we have music as well, with local musicians and well-known band Erica headlining at about 8pm.”

If a press release about the band is anything to go by Erica should provide a fitting finale to what has all the makings of a special day. It reads: “Erica is an awesome, dynamic, unsigned and original three-piece band hailing from sleepy Winchcombe, a small town in Gloucestershire.”

All the fun will start at about 10.15am when the stage and screen will be set up in Abbey Terrace in the town centre on the route so that race enthusiasts can watch the start of stage 7 which gets under way in Hemel Hempsted at 10.30am.

The cyclists will then go hell for leather towards the Cotswolds where they will take in Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh before going through Winchcombe and over Cleeve Hill, with the sprint stage in Winchcombe at about 2.20pm and the king of the mountains on Cleeve Hill at 2.30pm.

The cyclists will then head for Cheltenham for a grandstand finish in The Prom about 50 yards from the Queens Hotel at about 3.30pm.

For Jim Davies, the Tour of Britain heading through Winchcombe is a chance to accentuate the positives of cycling.

The 56-year-old, a Winchcombe Town Councillor and head of Leisure and Tourism in the town, has been cycling for 50 years.

“I love it,” he said. “I lived in the south of the county when I was younger and we’d go off on our bikes with our sandwiches and be out all day. We’d cycle round places like Hardwicke and Frampton and I just loved the freedom.

“These days the kids don’t do that which is a shame because it’s such good exercise for them. I think one of the problems is parents’ perception that cycling is dangerous. Roads do feel intimidating at times but it’s a perception we need to change because the stats show you get more injuries playing tennis or even gardening.

“There’s a stat that shows that on average there’s a fatality for every three million miles cycled.”

Jim Davies, who says he was taught to ride in the classic way – “I was put on a bike, told I wouldn’t fall off and then pushed away,” he laughed – joined Winchcombe Cycling Club 16 years ago when he moved to the town.

He was inspired to do so after taking part in the Hell of the North Cotswolds, known as the ‘HONC’ – a classic British cycling endurance event which has now been running for 33 years and organised by Winchcombe Cycling Club.

He’s never looked back, describing himself as a “recreational cyclist”.

He’s a member of a club that are in rude health as well.

“We’ve got several hundred members,” he said. “We provide a lively and fun environment for enjoying cycling in the beautiful Cotswolds.

“Our road group go on club runs of between 30 and 50 miles on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday mornings while our mountain bikers meet on Sunday mornings for off-roading in the surrounding hills.

“Members also take part in sportives and local time trial leagues, and some compete in local road races and cyclo-cross competitions.”

They’ve got some talented cyclists, too, including Wayne Coombs, who is a past British National veteran champion.

Meanwhile, a community family event has been organised at The Newlands to coincide with the Tour of Britain racing past.

The fun starts at 1pm and includes a cycling challenge on wattbikes.

The Tour of Britain starts in Edinburgh on 3rd September and finishes in Cardiff on 10th September.