BRADLEY Wiggins and Mark Cavendish could be soaring through Stroud next month when they are due to compete in the Tour of Britian.

With the fourth stage of the tour heading through the district on Wednesday, September 10 Stroud District Council is planning some fun cycling-related events to celebrate.

The tour is scheduled to make its way into Painswick from around 1pm to 1.30pm, before heading onto Stroud, Nailsworth and Wotton under Edge on its way to the Bristol.

Pippa Stroud, regeneration manager for SDC, said: “We want to encourage members of the public to get on their bikes and cycle into Painswick, Stroud, Nailsworth and Wotton to watch the tour as it flies through.

“Volunteers from the council will be there to hand out prizes to those who arrive by bike.”

The council’s chief executive, David Hagg, will be getting on his bike, with some of the staff, to cycle from the council offices at Ebley Mill to Wallbridge in Stroud in time for the tour.

At Wallbridge, visitors can enjoy various cycling-related activities as well as meeting Mr Pedersen, who has time-travelled from the 19th century to explain the fascinating story behind his revolutionary Dursley Pedersen Cycle – which is on loan from the Museum in the Park.

In the build up to the tour residents and council staff have been busy with their knitting needles to make knitted cycle-shirt bunting which will line the streets, connecting the event with Stroud’s woollen heritage.

Also to coincide with the event the Museum in the Park is holding a mini-exhibition relating to Neville Chanin, a Stroud resident who lived his life on two wheels, cycling more than a million kilometres across the globe until his death in 2010.

The exhibition runs from Tuesday, September 2 to Thursday, September 11.

SDC’s tourism team has joined with Cotswolds Tourism Partnership to launch a new Cotswolds and Severn Vale seven-day cycling tour map this month.

The waterproof maps can be purchased from Stroud Tourist Information Centre.