Torch Relay Route Announcements

The magnificent quadrangle at Trinity College

Today saw the detailed announcement of the Olympic Torch Relay routes through Peterborough, Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives.  The individual routes can be found here.

I am really chuffed with what has been announced for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.  Whilst we have had very little say in the decision-making for the County, we did sell the vision of sending the torch around the quadrangle at Trinity College to replicate the Chariots of Fire run, and the idea of using a punt for some of the route.  Both of these have been incorporated into the plans as part of the exit out of Cambridge on 8th July, with the entry into the City on 7h July coming through Newmarket Road and Mill Road prior to an evening celebration at Parker's Piece.  The routes through St Ives and Huntingdon, offer a similar combination of the scenic and the highly visible, and the route to the embankment in Peterborough on 3rd July includes a trip on the Nene Valley railway.

Torch Bearers posing for Cambridge First

The reason this is important is because I see the torch relay as having two purposes, one is to bring the Olympics out to Britain, to make it less London-centric,giving the opportunity for the whole country to have an involvement through getting the chance to see the torch and the procession, the other role is to provide an opportunity to send iconic images that sell Cambridgeshire around the world to make sure we capitalise on a tourism boom that we know will follow in the years after the Olympics.  The routes in Cambridgeshire offer a perfect combination of those two.

We did a big press call for the announcement at Trinity College this morning, where I featured live on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and recorded interviews for print, radio and for Anglia TV, along with Cambridge City Council representatives and some of our Torch Bearers.  I was extremely reassured to find that the torch bearers were exactly the sort of inspirational people I had been told the selection process would produce.

Links to various news stories are here:

Hunts Post          Cambridge News           BBC News           Anglia News   

Peterborough Evening Telegraph           Cambridge First