MONMOUTHSHIRE is set to host the biggest road cycling event for disability athletes in Wales yet during this year’s Abergavenny Festival of Cycling.

Athletes on tandems, handcycles and trikes will be taking to the roads of the town centre on Sunday August 9 for the Para Grand Prix of Wales which is now part of the eight-race British Cycling National Series.

It will be the third year that the event has been held in Abergavenny as part of the Festival of Cycling, and entries have been flocking into take part, with an entry already received from the Battle Back cycling team, which has links to the Help for Heroes charity.

The growth of this discipline at the Festival has delighted organiser Bill Owen who said: "We have seen cycling at national and international levels, including the Commonwealth Games, become more and more integrated between able bodied and disability riders over the years.

"The Paralympic movement in this country has given us many heroes, particularly here in Wales, while we all saw how the public embraced the Paralympics in London in 2012.

"The Para Grand Prix of Wales is the biggest road race cycling event in Wales and we are delighted to be part of the future development of para-cycling not just here in Monmouthshire but throughout Wales and the UK.

"For this to be the sixth leg of a National Series also speaks volumes about how disability cycling has developed over recent years. "

The 2012 London Paralympics saw an incredible 2.7 million tickets sold as the world discovered the athletes soon to be called the Superhumans.

The Para Grand Prix of Wales will take place on closed road in Abergavenny town centre from 11.15am on Sunday August 9. The final of the National Series takes place in Gravesend on September 6.