Ancient Greek 'triathlon' theme for Brighton Naked Bike Ride next month

This year’s Brighton Naked Bike Ride will be more of a naked triathlon – albeit in reverse order –  as organisers of the event in the South Coast City look to mark the Olympic year by incorporating running and swimming into the programme, taking inspiration from the Ancient Greeks, who competed in sports naked. The event takes place on Sunday June 10.

This will be the seventh year that the event, part of the World Naked Bike Ride movement which seeks to celebrate cycling and the human body and highlight how fragile the latter is as well as the environmental impact of dependency on fossil fuels, will have been held in Brighton, up to a thousand riders are expected to take part.

Co-organiser Duncan Blinkhorn told The Argus: “The Naked Bike Ride is partly about facing our fears and challenging ourselves.

“Many people are fearful of cycling on the roads but evidence shows that the more people cycle the safer we all are.

“By cycling naked we are symbolising our vulnerability, both as individuals and as a species while also demonstrating safety in numbers.

“In this Olympic year let us celebrate the awesome power of the human body.”

The newspaper added that Mr Blinkhorn would be handing out bananas to participants during the ride, which starts at noon at Preston Park before heading through the city centre and along the seafront to Hove, where it will end at the naturist beach.

More information on the Brighton ride can be found here, while the UK site of the World Naked Bike Ride also ha information about rides planned elsewhere in Britain next month including Manchester (1 June), York (2 June), Southampton (8 June), Cardiff, Exeter and London (9 June), and Bristol (10 June).

There is also a ride in Portsmouth on 26 May, and one in Glasgow on 14 July.