Plans in motion for popular cycling event to return in 2023 with three routes planned

The Round the Wrekin Sportive, one of the big fundraising events for Compton Care, is set to return in 2023, marking the sixth time the event will have taken place.

It has seen around £150,000 raised for the Wolverhampton-based palliative care charity through the event, which sees hundreds of cyclists take on one of three courses, starting out at Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club and heading out into Shropshire and the surrounding area.

The plans for the three routes, the 25-mile Hugh Porter route, the 64-mile Compton Care Classic and the 101-mile Carver's Epic, are currently being discussed by Compton Care patron Hugh Porter and members of the charity, with Hugh saying the plan was to freshen things up.

He said: "I wish I could say more as it's a bit of a tease at the moment, but what I can say is that I went out on a recce with Andy Dawson, who does a lot of the route for us, and Emily Thompson, who organises this sort of thing.

"We decided between us that we would freshen things up and we've made one or two tweaks here and there, so I'm really excited about what we're going to release in the new year.

"It's all about fun on bikes and I need to refer to my own route as it's the shortest one and I always dream of getting more people to take part."

Mr Porter said the event meant a lot to him and his wife Anita Lonsbrough due to their patronage of Compton Care and said all would be revealed about the routes and dates of the 2023 event in mid-January.

Compton Care community fundraiser Sally Woods said the event was a massive part of the calendar for Compton Care and spoke about why it was important.

She said: "The Round the Wrekin is one of our two main fundraising events in our fundraising calendar and it's the first one we organise each year.

"It's massive to have Hugh and Anita on board as it really adds kudos to the event for us and I think having the three different distances is important as we can attract people who are not normally cyclists.

"It's a nice bit of variety and we're really excited about revealing the route in the middle of January."