HOTEL, guests houses and campsites in Abergavenny were packed out last weekend as the town played host to the annual Festival of Cycling and saw the streets packed for the popular carnival parade.

The Festival of Cycling which began on Friday night, has been hailed as the most successful yet, the biggest event of its' kind in Wales this year and, probably, across the UK.

Beginning with the Get Connected Welsh Open Criteriums, which included a round of the national Elite Circuit Series for leading professional riders to Sunday's Tour of the Black Mountains Sportif, a massive 1,000 riders graced the roads of the town and Monmouthshire.

There were so many enquiries about entry online at the Festival website that it could not take the traffic and had to be reloaded.

And social networking sites went crazy after Friday night's outstanding town centre races, with professional teams Tweeting and Facebooking like fury.

The Youth Races on Friday saw youngsters from right across the country compete in three big races, while the businessmen and women of Abergavenny took part in the Traders' Race before the leading professionals got underway.

" Twenty riders, from the serious to the fun and the plain daft, rode around six laps of the course for the annual Traders Race at the Get Connected Welsh Open Criteriums," said a spokesman.

"The course was used just minutes later by the best of British road racers for round three of the Elite Circuit Series that is being shown on Sky Sports,"?he added

Then, just hours later, fun riders lined-up in Bailey Park for the annual Iron Mountain Sportif, with over 300 entrants, while there were around the same number riding the following day.

It was a massive effort from those involved, and Festival organiser Bill Owen praised everyone for making it a rousing success.

Owen said: "With around a thousand riders taking part over the course of the weekend in the various races and rides, it was the biggest cycling event in Wales this year.

"We knew it would be big this year, with the addition of the Tour of the Black Mountains to the programme, but we have been extremely and pleasantly surprised by the numbers who have attended and watched this year's Festival of Cycling.

"We incorporated it again with the Abergavenny Carnival of Saturday and, other than one big downpour of rain at around 3pm, it went very well.

"Once again, it was superb to work with the people who have made this such a success. Our particular thanks go again to the police and the marshals who were a constant help throughout the weekend.

"We would also like to thank the business people from across Abergavenny who have helped build our weekend into a real fixture on the town's sporting and social calendar in the last four years.

"Also our big thanks to Abergavenny Town Council and all the sponsors of the weekend. And, of course, there are the public who turned out in tremendous numbers both to watch and participate in our events and rides."

Gwen Jones chairman of the Abergavenny and District Tourism Association said that the event had brought a lot of business into the town and added: "I understand that all the self catering cottages and bed and breakfast facilities in the area were full as were the local campsites.

"Members of Pendragon Sports, who were taking part the cycling event, were using my own self catering cottage and they told me that the event had been well organised and was one of the best yet."

However Damian Cole, the owner of Get Connected, the cycling event's main sponsor was unhappy with the decision to cut the traders' race from ten laps to six. He said: "I was disappointed with the organisers over this decision. The traders paid good money to enter this race and for it to be reduced in length was not in the spirit of the occasion. Another four laps would not have increased the length of the race significantly. I am now reconsidering the amount of Get Connected's involvement next year's event."

The Welsh Open Criterium will be shown on Sky Sports next Tuesday (July 19).