Olympic and world champions Chris Hoy, Craig MacLean and Victoria Pendleton will be in action in Barnoldswick this Sunday competing in the Science in Sport Sprint Challenge.

The Challenge takes place between 11am and 12pm on closed sections of Skipton Road beside Rolls Royce Sports Field and will feature some of the country's best track sprinters.

Eighteen riders will go head-to-head in this unique knock-out competition and will blast down a 500-metre section of closed road at speeds of 45 miles per hour.

The Challenge is taking place on the same day as the 100-mile Tour of Pendle & Ribble Valley - part of the premier calendar of British Cycling.

Residents across Pendle are being warned about a rolling programme of road closures to accommodate these events.

Numerous roads will be closed on a 10-minute rolling basis from 9.30am to late afternoon to accommodate the Tour of Pendle and Ribble Valley.

Roads in Barnoldswick, then Bracewell, Gisburn, Bolton by Bowland, Waddington, Great Mitton, Whalley, Sabden, Padiham bypass, Fence, Brierfield, Nelson, Barrowford, and back to Barnoldswick will be affected. Riders will do two laps of this circuit before doing three laps of a much shorter circuit of Barnoldswick, Kelbrook, Earby, Thornton-in-Craven and back to Barnoldswick, where roads will also be closed on a rolling basis between early and mid afternoon.

All road closures will be supervised by the police.

The Tour of Pendle and Ribble Valley starts at 9.30am at West Craven High School on Kelbrook Road, Barnoldswick and is expected to finish around noon at Rolls Royce Playing Fields.

Skipton Road, Barnoldswick, will be closed permanently on the day from 9am to 3pm between Coates Lane and Greenberfield Lane junctions.

Also on Sunday, the Barnoldswick Cycle Fair takes place on Rolls Royce Sports Field.

This will feature cycle stunt displays, clowns, cycling activities, try-outs, sports tasters, arts activities and displays and will run between 10.30am - 2.30pm.

All three events are free to the public and are part of the Pendle & East Lancashire Bike Fest 2005 which aims to promote cycling amongst the local community.

It has been organised by Pennine Events Limited on behalf of Pendle Council.

Mark Sandamas, organiser of Pendle & East Lancashire Bike Fest, said: "There will be some disruption to traffic as a result of the rolling and permanent road closures along the route of the tour and the sprint challenge. We apologise for any inconvenience but would hope that people will understand that this is a small price to pay for hosting two very high profile cycling events in Pendle and Ribble Valley."

Full details of all events of Pendle & East Lancashire Bike Fest 2005 can be viewed at www.pendlebikefest.com