Riders take to the Prom

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BLACKPOOL'S world-famous Golden Mile was a sea of colour last night as thousands of cyclists turned to pedal power for the annual Ride the Lights celebration.
The event saw people of all ages – including a posse of postmen and budding artists on decorated bikes – take to the Promenade for a preview of the Illuminations ahead of the big Switch On on Friday.

Ride the Lights, in its sixth year, saw the road closed as almost 12,000 revellers whizzed down the stretch to gaze upon the old favourites and sparkling new creations, including designer Laurence Llewellyn Bowen's new haunted features.

More than 30 Fylde coast postmen mounted their Royal Mail bikes to raise money for Barnardos.

Gary Woods, Royal Mail manager for Lytham and St Annes, said: "This year we are partnering up with Barnardos and we thought it would be a great opportunity to raise some cash.

"More than 30 of us, including managers and postmen, put £2 in each, and decided to ride the six miles, while others took buckets along the Prom.

"You can see it's going to be a great year for the Illuminations."

Other groups made the traffic-free event even brighter with their "bespoke" creations.

Young artists from Blaze, a culture and sport programme by Lancashire and Blackpool Councils, designed zoetropes to light up their spokes with flashing images of the Tower and other Blackpool images as they cycled.

Kajol Lally, who attends Highfield College in South Shore, said: "All of us who took part are heavily involved with art, and we designed the images ourselves, and got professional artists in to fit them to our spokes.

"We loved the event, it was so atmospheric and we felt we really stood out in the crowds."

The budding artists even created one bike, a Boom Bike, which blasts out music through pedal power.

Sara Domville, project manager, said: "Not only did they look fantastic, we also hope to find some Olympic champions of the future."

Natalie Wyatt, head of VisitBlackpool, added: "This event has got bigger and bigger.

"This year there were about 12,000 who turned up. It was to give residents the chance to see the Illuminations before anyone else, and the response was fantastic."