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Getting busy in my village...

David Jenkins - 6/6/22 at 01:47 PM

Jubilee fly-past aircraft last week, then this today:

I hope the organisers are paying for the police escort - 30+ police bikes providing a rolling roadblock in front of this lot.

BBC news

westf27 - 6/6/22 at 03:02 PM

You gotta a love a bit of spandex.
There like caravanners,just get in the way usually 2/3 abreast.
That’s closed the whole road,they pay nothing towards it and a police escort.

David Jenkins - 6/6/22 at 03:24 PM

Went to the end of my road to watch them pass: stood around chatting to some neighbours, then was fascinated by the methods the police bikes used to block all the side roads, watched the bikes for 10 - 20 seconds as they passed, then went back home.

Closed a whole range of minor and major roads from Colchester to Bury St Edmunds, probably stopped trains for 10 minutes on the main line from London to Norwich because of the crossing at the edge of our village (can't exactly bring the barriers down half-way through the peloton!), vast number of police bikes, 2 ambulances and a paramedic, etc, etc. followed by a long procession of support vehicles.

And for the next 5 days they will cause similar disruption across other parts of the UK...

nick205 - 6/6/22 at 03:40 PM

Gents be glad you don't live along the Tour de France route.

westf27 - 6/6/22 at 03:49 PM

Shouldn’t moan really I guess,but the police do seem to attract criticism,give them some crime to investigate and some of it quite serious and you get no response.
As said the TDF route would be similar as would the TT circuit,which apparently has an average lap speed of 130 mph.Need to be careful coming out your front door.

jps - 6/6/22 at 06:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkinsprobably stopped trains for 10 minutes on the main line from London to Norwich because of the crossing at the edge of our village (can't exactly bring the barriers down half-way through the peloton!)

I’d be surprised if they did stop any trains for the race, not unheard of for bike races in France/Belgium (where cycling is much more popular) to have had their outcome determined by the train barriers coming down mid-race and half the riders having to wait for the TGV to come past…

peter030371 - 6/6/22 at 07:33 PM

Not sure what some of you are on about but major events like this have to pay for emergency services support, it's not free!

David Jenkins - 6/6/22 at 09:27 PM

...and then they had to stop this race because one of the police outriders had an accident further on, a little ahead of the cyclists, and had to be taken to hospital...

bi22le - 7/6/22 at 10:25 PM

A good few years ago the TDF did a set of special stages in the UK and one of them went near me. We took a talk to where it was going past, it was a dual carriageway with a slight downhill.

I could not believe how fast they were going. We knew they were approaching as the helicopter was getting closer but wow they were pushing on

nick205 - 8/6/22 at 08:13 AM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
A good few years ago the TDF did a set of special stages in the UK and one of them went near me. We took a talk to where it was going past, it was a dual carriageway with a slight downhill.

I could not believe how fast they were going. We knew they were approaching as the helicopter was getting closer but wow they were pushing on

Professional cyclists in a race do not hang about.

Keep in mind as well for the TdF they'll be keeping that sort of pace up for 21 days over around 2,000 miles.

SJ - 8/6/22 at 10:45 AM

quote:
Originally posted by nick205

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
A good few years ago the TDF did a set of special stages in the UK and one of them went near me. We took a talk to where it was going past, it was a dual carriageway with a slight downhill.

I could not believe how fast they were going. We knew they were approaching as the helicopter was getting closer but wow they were pushing on

Professional cyclists in a race do not hang about.

Keep in mind as well for the TdF they'll be keeping that sort of pace up for 21 days over around 2,000 miles.

It's amazing! I ride a lot but my average is only about 15mph wheras the TDF riders are about 25MPH average for the whole thing. I like the Greg LeMond quote "It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster"

nick205 - 8/6/22 at 12:11 PM

^^^

I used to ride a lot on the road (epilepsy stops me now) and on a good day would average 18-20mph. As you say professional cyclists push that a big step further in speed and endurance.

That said they do it for a living, train religously, have mechanics, sponsors and all manner of things around them.

overdriver - 9/6/22 at 10:28 AM

Here in sunny (actually stinking hot at the mo) Mallorca, we are plagued by hoards of bikeists throughout most of the year.

You want to overtake a lorry on a straight piece of road? No, he's about to overtake a couple riding abreast at 15 - 20mph. Next straight, there's a group coming towards you. Fancy a drive up the Tramuntana mountains? Be prepared to encounter lycra clad, sweat laden candidates for immediate cardiac arrest struggling against gravity around every blind bend on the way up and screaming down at speeds seemingly far in excess of the capabilities of the bike's braking system!

Pelotons can be upto 100 strong and frequent - I have counted over 1,000 bikes an hour. Unfortunately, there does seem to exist a certain arrogance amongst some of the cycling fraternity often manifesting itself in refusing to use service roads in towns and not riding in single file. And then there's the instances where calls of nature are taken in full view.........!

Michael.