Prime Minister Gets in on Act As Six-day Cycling Comes Home

Perhaps it was an attempt to puncture Boris Johnson's and David Cameron's attempts at two-wheeled credibility or maybe Gordon Brown is building on Ken Livingstone's success in bringing major cycling events to the capital. Be it one or the other, the sport achieved a first yesterday: a reception at No10 Downing Street with the prime minister present to back the revival of six-day track cycling in London.

The event, to be promoted by the former top six-day racer Tony Doyle, will be held in Newham in the first week of October 2009 at a venue yet to be determined. The borough will eventually have the 2012 Olympic velodrome among its facilities and the event has a three-year commitment from the council. "This is a sport that is a spectacular success for Great Britain. We want to invest in this sport," said the prime minister.

Doyle's project will cost about £1m a year of which he says "the majority" is either "found or earmarked" by sponsors. It will be run along classic six-day lines, with a range of events each evening counting towards a general classification.

Great Britain can boast the world champions in the main six-day discipline, the Madison relay, where Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins took gold in March in Manchester. "We will have all the best six-day riders in the world and all of the stars from Great Britain," said Doyle.

The last six-day was held in London in 1980 but the capital is where the sport was born in 1878 at a time when marathon cycling events were in vogue. In those days cyclists remained on their bikes for the entire six days but over the years the format has been streamlined to be less sadistic. Doyle joked yesterday that he could not wait to see the prime minister on a track bike on a velodrome but track cycling - target driven with a strong record of delivery - could be a useful role model for New labor.

Brown is understood to have invited the British track cycling team to Downing Street after their successful world championships in March, but this was not possible. There is speculation that he may visit the team in the near future to be brought up to date on their progress towards Beijing.

Dave Brailsford, the cycling performance director, said he is close to raising the £24m over four years necessary to realize his dream of putting a British team in the Tour de France from 2010. He has been in close contact with a number of potential commercial backers and expects to begin negotiating with riders over contracts later this year. "Now is the moment because a lot of the British guys are out of contract next year," he said. His most important target is the sprinter Mark Cavendish, who was confirmed yesterday in the Columbia team's line-up for the Tour de France. The double Giro d'Italia stage winner is signed up to Columbia until the end of 2009 but is already being courted by other teams.

While potential sponsors' names remain under wraps, Brailsford revealed that his team will be overseen by a trust which will ensure its "moral capital" and that his aim is a squad which will retain its name, in the style of Ferrari in formula one, rather than giving a backer sole title sponsorship. He is utterly confident about the project: "This thing looks as if it is going to happen."