Dispute over Lincoln Grand Prix Name

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The Lincoln Grand Prix may be the only monument the British cycling racing calendar has left but that hasn’t stopped there being a dispute over its name from unlikely source

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Dispute over Lincoln Grand Prix Name

Note: after an aggressive phone call this morning at 8.30 (or was it earlier) from ITP EVents (not a company I’d want to be involved with after the way they spoke to me), a right of reply has been published here.

 

Lincoln Grand Prix Press Release
Weekend Schedule Revised For Lincoln Festival of Cycling 2016
The Lincoln Festival of Cycling organisers are very disappointed to announce that the Lincoln Criterium, Lincoln Sportive and Lincoln Uphill Dash will be cancelled for 2016.

The Velo Club Lincoln and the Lincoln Festival of Cycling organisers are left with no other choice despite their unprecedented efforts to reach an agreement with ITP Events’ regarding the Sportive.

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2007 and Dean Downing wins the Lincoln Grand Prix

In September we wrote to ITP Events’ informing them that the decision had been that their Sportive would no longer be recognised as part of the weekend because of both Financial and Safety concerns raised by the Safety Advisory Groups. The new 3 day format was possible by cross funding the additional events from the income generated by the Sportive.

Whilst we do not want to dwell on the point of safety, for clarity there were serious concerns over the lack of Safety Planning and in fact there was a threat of cancellation given for the 2015 Sportive from Lincolnshire Police Safety Advisory Group (SAG). From 2010 to 2014, ITP did not produce and submit a Safety Plan to the City of Lincoln Council SAG so the previous Organiser, Ian Emmerson, incorporated it into the main weekend plan to ensure the event could go ahead.

On receipt of our letter, ITP initially moved their event to a different date and removed the words ‘Lincoln Grand Prix’ from the event name, only to change it back once the Festival of Cycling programme was launched which fitted in with the requests of the letter.

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Twice British champion (once on this circuit), Peter Kennaugh wins the Lincoln GP for the ‘Rock’ (Isle of Man)

The Velo Club Lincoln, Lincoln Grand Prix and Lincoln Festival of Cycling are all non-profit organisations and have minimal funding to run up huge costs in long drawn out legal battles. However, a small amount of the Events finances were invested in having Solicitors and subsequently London Barristers confirm that The Velo Club Lincoln own the rights to the name ‘Lincoln Grand Prix’ which as we are all aware is a 60-year-old event. Despite this confirmation ITP Events’ has continued to promote their event as part of the Festival of Cycling weekend and threaten legal action against us, the Organisers.

Whilst we could have run, and were proposing to run a separate Sportive, the situation arose of two Events being scheduled on the same day in the same place, which is totally confusing for anyone interested in being part of the weekend. We did not want to cause that confusion.

 

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In both 2014 & 2015 Ian Emmerson (then the Lincoln Grand Prix organiser) was informed by ITP Events that the sportive was ‘break even’ and there was a concern about any rise in costs or an increase in the £2 payment per rider paid to the Lincoln Grand Prix. However, following a telephone call to the Velo Club Chairman, Roger Hobby, Mr Penrose, the Director of ITP Events informed him he would require £20,000 to buy the event and let the Velo Club and its organisational team run Lincoln GP Sportive as an official part of the weekend.

Following this conversation, private investment was secured and an offer for the full amount was made to ITP Events Limited; however sadly on Friday when no response had been received we had to take the view that there was no further way of moving forward with the negotiations and because of the time constraints we have decided to pull out.

This does mean that we are unable to continue with the whole Event, hence the cancellations.

The Velo Club Lincoln still dispute the use of the name Lincoln Grand Prix by ITP Events, and the ITP Events Sportive is in no way connected to or part of the Lincoln Grand Prix or Lincoln Festival of Cycling.

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