The Gold Coast SUNS and Metricon Stadium are proud to announce a new partnership with three-time Tour De France green jersey winner Robbie McEwen to bring the Gold Coast Festival of Cycling to Metricon Stadium in 2013.

The Gold Coast Festival of Cycling’s weekend of activities focused on community engagement and mass participation will take place on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th of September, with the Metricon Stadium precinct to be the ‘cycling’ hub for this event.

The weekend festivities will begin on Saturday morning with a family fun run for all ages and a Cycling Criterium Series – an anti-clockwise circuit starting and finishing in front of the southern plaza with different categories including Elite Racing, Celebrity Challenge and High School Teams Challenge.

The festival, held on the weekend of the AFL Grand Final will broadcast the match live on Metricon Stadium’s big screen, providing more further entertainment for participants and spectators.  

Meanwhile, on Sunday morning over 2,500 cyclists are expected to depart from the stadium precinct, heading off on a 107km cycling tour across the Gold Coast Hinterland, before heading back in the afternoon to enjoy a Family Fun Day at Metricon Stadium.

They’ll be plenty of activity in the afternoon including a Kids Activity Zone specialising in fitness and nutrition, a kids Mini Cycling Fondo, live entertainment on-stage and an AFL Playground where kids can test their kicking and handballing skills.

GC SUNS CEO Travis Auld welcomed the event to Metricon Stadium.

"This is a really exciting day for Metricon Stadium, we’re a community asset with more than eleven home games here with the Gold Coast SUNS – but this asset should be utilised all year round,” said Auld.

“I attended the Gold Coast Festival of Cycling last year and it really is a wonderful event, I think we can build it here and Metricon Stadium... and to have Robbie front this community event for us for the Football Club and the Stadium, as an icon for the sport is really exciting for everyone involved.”

Three-time Tour De France green jersey winner Robbie McEwen agreed with Auld’s sentiment.

“I’m really pleased to announce that the Gold Coast Festival of Cycling in its second edition has relocated its hub here to Metricon Stadium – a proud partner of ours in this fantastic cycling community event,” said McEwen.

“Metricon Stadium came to us and were interested in us coming to base our event and we were more than happy to come have a look at the facilities.”

“Once we got over here and had a look at what Metricon Stadium had to offer we didn’t hesitate – it’s got everything we could possibly need to stage a first class event to showcase the Gold Coast.”