OCBC Cycle 2019 Launch @ OrchardGateway

Singapore’s biggest cycling fiesta, the OCBC Cycle, will be back on the 11th and 12th May at the Singapore Sports Hub.

And to kick off the 2019 edition of the event, the official launch of OCBC Cycle took place recently, at the OrchardGateway Shopping Mall along Singapore’s bustling Orchard Road, with attractive goodies awaiting the first few cyclists in the queue to register for the event.

Delighted To Kick Off Another OCBC Cycle

Said Samuel Tsien, Group CEO of OCBC Bank, “We are delighted to kick off the 11th edition of OCBC Cycle at OrchardGateway. The event has become an iconic event on Singapore’s sporting calendar, thanks to the support of all our participants, partners and local authorities – the Land Transport Authority, Singapore Police Force and Sport Singapore.”

And he continued, “Singapore’s well integrated pathways, our beautiful parks and seamless park connectors have made it easier for people to take up cycling for exercise and recreation. Yet, OCBC Cycle’s allure – the opportunity to ride on closed roads that offer memorable and Instagrammable sights – remains unique.”

First And Second In The Queue

By the time that I had reached OrchardGateway shortly before the noon deadline on launch day, the queue had already numbered at a staggering several hundred people long. I had been pretty amazed.

And the first and second persons in the queue, had been Bryan Phyo and his wife, Michelle, who each walked away with an attractive gift pack consisting of an Aleoca hybrid bicycle and a GoPro action camera, worth S$840 in total.

They had both been waiting in line for a staggering 21 hours, having turned up to queue at 2pm the previous day.

Said Bryan, 33, an Engineer, “The official queue didn’t actually start till about 10pm at night, but my wife and I still decided to came down earlier than that, to try my luck. I chose to try because the prizes were very attractive.”

A regular participant of OCBC Cycle, Bryan had been taking part in OCBC Cycle for the past few years and he had wanted to complete his medal collection.

The medal for the past three years of OCBC Cycle were part of a jigsaw puzzle to form a bicycle gear, and participants had to take part in the event from 2017 – 2019 in order to get the complete gear.

Bryan had added that he and his wife had not been bored throughout their time in the queue, as other cyclists continued arriving over the next few hours, with five people already being in queue by 5pm in the evening.

Said Bryan, “We are all regulars at OCBC Cycle and we knew each other so we chitchatted and played games to pass the time. It was quite interesting.”

Other prizes which had also been won by the queuing participants, also included discounts up to 25 per cent off their registration fees and goodies such as Bicycle Seat Packs, Shopping Vouchers, Water Bottles and Cycling Helmets from the various event sponsors – which had included Timbuk2, Hydro Flask and Cycliq.

Friends Of OCBC Cycle

Out of the sponsors, who are known as the Friends Of OCBC Cycle, a few of them were, this year, actually joining forces with the OCBC Cycle for the first time, ever.

Six new Friends Of OCBC Cycle are Aleoca, GoPro, Hydro Flask, Cycliq, Goal Zero and SP Connect, with other returning sponsors being MoBike, which in its third year is offering 500 bicycles for free usage. There are 23 Friends altogether.

Said Tsien, “Our partners are critical for OCBC Cycle’s success. We continuously seek like-minded Friends of OCBC Cycle to work with us to enhance the experiences.”

He continued, “This year, we have brought on board Aleoca, a local bike manufacturer who will avail bicycles at reasonable prices, and we have partnered with action camera makers GoPro so that every moment of your cycling adventures, can be captured. And Cycliq, known for their safety bicycle cameras, will help us to promote safe cycling.”

Speedway Corporate Championships Returns

Also, the popular OCBC Cycle Speedway Corporate Championship category, is making a comeback this year – it had been launched in 2017 for Singapore corporate cycling teams to compete against one another for prize money, a Championship trophy as well as winning orange jerseys for all of their riders.

This Corporate Championship event had taken a break last year but according to many companies, the race format was interesting and it had fostered camaraderie amongst their employees. So the Corporate Speedway Champions are returning this year.

Companies will sign up a team of four employees to ride in a team relay format. Each team is further grouped into two pairs and each pair will cycle five laps on the one-kilometre track. The first two cyclists will ride five laps before the second pair, who completes the remaining five laps.

And this returning category can take up to eight Singapore corporate teams with the first and second runners-up receiving prizes, in addition to the champions.

Comes Under New Umbrella Of Business Times Corporate Rally

This corporate Speedway race, together with the OCBC Cycle Corporate chase, will also come under a new umbrella category called The Business Times Corporate Rally with all participants in the varying Corporate categories each receiving a six month subscription to the digital version of The Business Times.

South East Asia Speedway Championships

And the OCBC Cycle South East Asia Speedway Championship is also making a comeback, with the 2018 surprise winners Myanmar confirming their participation for the 2019 event.

And the other top South East Asian teams are also expected to take part to fight for the title, too.

This year, the Speedway championships categories will be moved to Stadium Drive this year, too – to enable amateur competitive cyclists to experience the same route as the professionals from South East Asia’s national teams.

Mighty Savers Kids Ride

And to cater to the young ones, there is also the OCBC Cycle Mighty Savers Kids Ride which has been enhanced to enable families to ride together by combining together the three ride categories – which were previously segmented by age – into one big one.

This is to allow families with children aged between five to 12 years old, to cycle together on Stadium Drive. The on-route bubbles, created by strategically placed bubble machines, will also return too, due to popular demand.

Other Categories

Also, the 42km Sportive Ride, 23km Straits Times Ride and the OCBC Cycle Speedway Club Championship too, will also continue to feature in the 2019 event, too.

OCBC Cycle Goes Green

As well, the OCBC Cycle event has been gradually going green, with several measures having being introduced in the past few editions, to do so.

These include engaging the help of the Singapore Sports Hub to recycle the plastic bottles that thirsty cyclists use by the hundreds. Also, compositing of fruit peels collected from the event has been done by eco start-up Green Nudge.

In fact, to demonstrate this green factor at the launch event, the official launchpad this year had been totally virtual, complete with virtual confetti on the screen – rather than the physical version, which had been a mainstay of the celebrations of the launch event during the previous few years.

While I thought that it had been tidier and that there was less wastage of resources in this way, it had also reduced some photo opportunities.

Now, with the further increased focus on environmental conservation efforts, OCBC Cycle 2019, while retaining the bottle-recycling arrangements, will expand its green initiatives during the event weekend this year.

And these include planting one tree for every 50 registered cyclists, stopping the usage of single-use plastics in their event pack collection, stopping the wrapping of event medals in recycled paper, organising workshops on recycling and upcycling, replacing trophies for the OCBC Cycle Speedway Championships with reuse steel tumblers from Hydro Flask and repurposing event banners and used plastic containers into useful items, such as tote bags and furniture.

Said Tsien “Cycling is a green sport. I am especially glad that this year, we have planned seven new initiatives associated with OCBC Cycle for the environment. Some are modest in scope, but it is our belief that every small thing we do matters.”

And he continued, “We will be planting one tree for every 50 riders who take part. In a first for Singapore, no single-use plastics will be used when riders pick up their event packs. Our event banners will be repurposed to make useful items such as tote bags and we will compost all fruit peels to make fertiliser. Our goal is to work with the Singapore Environmental Council to be the first event in Singapore to achieve the Eco Event certificate; I think that we can do it, one turn of the wheel at a time.”

Online Registration Opens 14 January

Online registration for OCBC Cycle 2019 is now open and the first 500 participants to sign up online using the OCBC Pay Anyone will be given S$10 cash-back.