Debut Cycling Event Takes It Up A Gear

Exposure through events is key in the growth of so many industries. Cycling being one of them. For cyclists it’s a lifestyle, not just a sport. The Rider Of The Year awards acknowledges that. ‘Well, simply put, we’re cyclists and we like cycling events. Events are a vital part for cycling as a whole of course, gathering likeminded people together to enjoy riding a bike.’ Mark Noble – Head of Marketing at Upgrade Bikes/Lezyne.

With the popularity of the event’s predecessor, the ‘Bike Of The Year’ awards, the inaugural Rider Of The Year event was an emotional one and when Morgan Pickstock, the first winner, picked up his trophy and started choking up with emotion and tears… they knew they’d done something right and set the tone. To bring this event to life two prestigious cycling magazines, Mountain Biking UK and Cycling Plus came together with the support of Upgrade Bikes to celebrate the gamechangers, the riders who are pushing cycling forwards, those who have pushed themselves, achieved, succeeded, or have been a huge inspiration to others.

At the end of a hectic season, these awards recognised riders who have made a big difference that year. By keeping the award categories limited with just 6 awards meant winning one of these Rider of The Year awards was a huge deal within the cycling community, after publishing the shortlist in their magazines, many were voted by the magazine readers. The award categories were Rider of the Year and Newcomer of the Year who were voted by the cycling community and The Lifetime Achievement awards were hand-picked by the editorial staff of the magazines, and really counted.

Mark Noble, head of marketing at Upgrade Bikes / Lezyne, said “The winners are all cycling legends, the community as a whole understood the reasons behind it, we had the right mix of industry people, riders, athletes, young riders, legends, and media on the night – and it all just worked. This is the first of many – and we’ll see you there in 2024!”

A Unique Award

We were so pumped to create this bicycle pump inspired award for the Rider Of The Year awards. The aluminium T-bar handle piece was supplied by one of the sponsors of the event, Lezyne taken from their high-end bicycle track pump. This is such a unique and impressive way of making your awards truly bespoke. Here at EFX we always go above and beyond to recreate and realise the initial ideas you propose to us. The base of these awards is made of solid oak and engraved with the branding and winners names. The client was excited to see the behind the scenes creation of these awards, just as much as we were making them!

Here is what the client thought about working with EFX ‘Our designs worked extremely well on EFX trophy concepts, the last-minute nature of knowing the winners and then adding that information to the trophies worked very well, and our idea of having a CNC bicycle tool piece added to the top worked perfectly. EFX delivered – the trophies came out perfect, and they really mattered and meant something tangible to the winners.’