VISITORS to this year's Festival of Speed - to be held at Goodwood in less than three weeks - can look forward to the unfamiliar but dramatic spectacle of top motor racing stars in Lycra.

They will be pedalling up the demanding 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb, paired up with some of the world's best professional cyclists in a thrilling cycle race.

This exciting inaugural pedal-powered competition will be named the Goodwood Organic Milk Race, to recall the famous Milk Race, Britain's premier competitive cycling event in the 1970s, as well as coinciding with the introduction of Goodwood's own organic milk sold in corn starch-based bottles that are fully compostable in ten weeks.

At the festival, the famous motor sport personalities will harness their competitive instincts into a challenging cycle time trial from Goodwood House to the top of the hill and back.

Believe it, this is going to be a super spectacle to rival the soapbox gravity' racing in past years - virtually silent but devastatingly fast. Each driver will join forces with a top professional cyclist to set a time as a two-man team - the clock stops when the second rider crosses the line - and Festival spectators will be able to wager on the results via SMS text messaging in order to win a top-of-the-range carbon road racing bike, with all funds donated to charity.

F1 drivers Jenson Button, Anthony Davidson and Mark Webber have already pledged their involvement, along with former F1 World Champion Damon Hill, ex-World Rally Champion Colin McRae, Le Mans winner Allan McNish and motorcycle master Troy Bayliss.

They will join Olympic gold medal cyclists Jason Queally and Chris Hoy, plus Hamp-shire's Commonwealth gold and Olympic silver medallist Rob Hayles and the reigning triple World Champion Victoria Pendleton.

In an early trial run a pair of professional bike racers were clocked at seven minutes for the round trip while Button, pictured, in practise last week clocked eight minutes, worrying his opposition.

Top motor sport drivers have always used cycling as an integral part of their fitness regime, often training alongside professional cyclists to measure their performance against the very best.

The Goodwood Organic Milk Race takes place exactly two weeks before the Formula One circus comes to the UK for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, while the cycling stars will ride at Goodwood just a fortnight before the 2007 Tour de France starts for the first time in London.

Festival visitors can join in the action and help raise money for charity by betting on which cycling dynamic duo will win the timed event. All money raised will go to the Richard Burns Foundation.