As a non-cyclist – University days apart, and if anyone has seen my bike, with an F144 number on the back mudguard and last seen in 1979 locked to a post outside the Pike and Eel pub, then please do get in touch – I prefer running.

OK, it takes longer, but it's pretty simple, isn't it? Which is why organising running events is simpler than organising cycling events. I ran the Virgin London Marathon last year, and I can honestly say that over the whole of that long and winding road I didn't witness one serious crash – that is, if you discount the very occasional sound of exhausted bodies hitting the tarmac.

What I did witness on my first marathon was, as I expected, a tumultuous level of support. It was great. But if I'm being honest, there wasn't the sense of sheer excitement among spectators that I witnessed when I did the Tour de France in 1994.

I'd better qualify this. When I say "did the Tour of France" I don't actually mean I cycled it. As I've already pointed out, I'm not one of life's cyclists and besides, thanks to person or persons unknown, the only proper bike I have ever owned has mysteriously vanished.


And when I say "did the Tour de France" I don't also mean I was involved for the whole business, all the way to the Champs-Elysees. But, reporting for The Independent, I was in the lead car for the Motorola team, for whom a certain Lance Armstrong (pictured) was riding, as the Tour made its return to Britain for the first time in 20 years.

Sitting in the front passenger seat alongside team manager Jim Ochowicz as the car raced through the Kent and Sussex countryside was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

The response of the spectators – hunched back into high hedges, settled on to garden chairs in their driveways, waving paper Union Jacks in the packed town centres – was astounding. Even to Ochowicz and Geoff Brown, who was mechanic for the Motorola team.

"I've never seen so many people at a bike race. Never," said Brown, who has been on the circuit for eight years. Ochowicz, who cycled for the US team at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, commented wryly: "The Queen doesn't get a turn-out like this, does she?"

The progress did indeed seem a royal one, nowhere more so than in Royal Tunbridge Wells, where the centre was thronged.

Thirteen years later I was back in Royal Tunbridge Wells as a spectator watching the Tour sweep through on its first stage from London to Canterbury, having run the prologue time trial the previous day in and around Hyde Park, taking in some of the capital's iconic landmarks.

Once again, in glaring sunshine, the levels of enthusiasm were amazing. There was a real sense of the streets that this was the real deal, a rarity, a world class event.

It is a fair bet that a good proportion of those who were so thrilled by the Tour's arrival on those occasions will already be making plans to witness similar scenes in 2013, when the first of what organisers hope will become a treasured national event takes place – a two-day festival of cycling with a London Marathon-style race involving 35,000 enthusiasts and around 200 elite performers over a distance of 100 miles on the second day.


Having announced their plans this week for what will be the first post-London 2012 event to be held – or in the race's case, started – in the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – London & Partners, acting for the Mayor of London's office, are now engaged in their own race.

If the event is to make it onto the international fixture list for 2013, the world cycling body, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) needs to know who the partner/main sponsor will be by July, according to Jonny Clay, British Cycling's head of cycling sports.

Pat McQuaid, the UCI president, has already expressed his enthusiasm for this Big Idea: "To be able to have a race in Britain of this status in a city the size of London is hugely exciting for our sport – and for the public and athletes."

But first there needs to be that name in the frame who will take the event on, ideally, for the first five years at least.

When I raised the question with Ian Edmondson, head of major events for London & Partners, after the press, he replied that the room was full of interested parties who already had a track record in staging such events, whether they were to do with running, cycling or triathlon.

Among those interested parties were two representatives from Upsolut, the German-based company which has played a major part in organising the annual Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship event in Hyde Park, which involves a mixture of enthusiasts and elite performer, and which has also organised the Vattenfall Cyclassic, the biggest cycling event in Europe, since 1996.


The Vattenfall Cyclassic, the only German UCI ProTour one-day race, regularly features more than 160 of the world's best riders along with up to 25,000 enthusiasts, and regularly draws crowds of 800,000 out onto the streets of Hamburg, attracting live coverage on German TV.

"We have had 16 years' experience in staging events like this," says Dr Michael Hinz, the Upsolut chief executive. "We have pioneered city cycling events involving enthusiasts and elite riders."

Robert Puestow, Upsolut's operations director, adds: "The model we have used in Hamburg would fit exactly in London. And the model we have been operating in Hyde Park for the triathlon is similar.

"We already have a very strong relationship with UCI, and we know about the difficulties of closing a city down.

"In order for an event such as this to work, as we have discovered, you have to have a guaranteed core of elite riders, the best of the riders, there. Once you have that certain level, everything else will work.

"It probably wouldn't make a profit for three years, but that would change in the long-term, especially for an event such as this, involving London."

So will Upsolut turn out to be the name in the frame?

"We wouldn't be here if we weren't interested," Hinz comments. "We are certainly looking closely at the tendering process. But it is a case of having a vision."

That initial vision has already been expressed by London & Partners. But is Britain ready for the London Marathon on wheels? You bet it is.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.