Ulster Unionist MLA Sandra Overend has backed the calls of her Party Colleague the Regional Development minister Danny Kennedy MLA  that there should be a cycling legacy from next year’s Giro d’Italia.   

Mrs Overend, herself a keen cyclist, said;

“I was very heartened to hear the  Regional Development Minister state that next year’s Giro d’Italia will afford cycling the opportunity for worldwide promotion as well as showing off some of our great tourist sites and infrastructure, not least in and around Belfast and along the Antrim coast.

I also welcome the new cycling unit that the Minister has formed in his Department and am confident that this unit would be the ideal vehicle to lead on promotion of the Giro.

We in Northern Ireland have been blessed in recent years in terms of major sporting events including the World Police and Fire Games and the Irish Open, and I agree with the Minister that the Giro has the potential to be even bigger than either, impacting on cycling, tourism and helping create a general feel-good factor.

The legacy of the Giro has the potential to be so much more than simply in respect of tourism but could, if a legacy fund is provided, result in an expansion of schools engagement as well as the development of additional cycling routes and infrastructure.

As a member of the all-party cycling group I shall be seeking the group’s support for the Transport Minister to be given legacy responsibility. The Executive should establish a legacy fund to promote cycling following the Giro d’Italia so that we in Northern Ireland can benefit in terms of health and well-being in addition to an appreciation of the sport of cycling for many years to come.”