RideLondon2020

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mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
I do wonder whether closed road events may make cyclist haters hate cyclists all the more. Or perhaps haters are just gonna hate.
Haters gonna hate. Surrey never seems to have got behind the event properly, making it difficult for riders and spectators to visit, so I expect London has had most of the tourism income. It'll still be a bit of a shame if Surrey wants to shoot on a bit of its Olympic legacy - the only bit with Surrey in the official name, isn't it?

If they do reject it, I expect the organisers will invite the other home counties to bid for it, but can you really see any of them except Kent (probably involving the Gravesend Cyclopark) effectively inviting more cycling there? Herts and especially Essex county councils are notoriously hostile to cycling (political opposition, tiny budgets), Berkshire is fragmented into unitary districts which probably won't pull a bid together and I'm not sure Buckinghamshire will dare upset that many of the rich Chilterns residents already grumpy about HS2. Am I wrong?
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Don't think you could get from central London, to Brighton and back within 100 miles. The most direct routes would come in at around 110-120.
Maybe the start could move out near Brighton with the Olympic park on the route in, but the route would probably have to avoid Surrey if they won't pay for it. Maybe a Sussex-Kent combined bid?
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
Maybe the start could move out near Brighton with the Olympic park on the route in, but the route would probably have to avoid Surrey if they won't pay for it. Maybe a Sussex-Kent combined bid?
Hang on ... that could be getting a bit close to my back yard. Where did I put my pitchfork?
 

steverob

Guru
Location
Buckinghamshire
If you were to move the start, where else in or near London could you move it to? The Olympic Park is ideal as there is enough space to hold multiple streams of pens of riders simultaneously (at the peak of 7-8am there must be at least 10,000 cyclists waiting for the start I'd have thought, maybe more) and all the associated vehicles such as the baggage trucks etc., plus it has a nice wide three-lane road leaving the site for the first few miles of the route, meaning riders don't get completely snarled up in a traffic jam as soon as they start (as I have experienced in other sportives) - those jams can wait until you get to the hilly bits!
 

vickster

Legendary Member
You just need to avoid Surrey, heading out into Essex wouldn’t be unreasonable from QEOP
 
OP
OP
icowden

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
The problem with these consultations is that often the moaners are more motivated that the people who don't have a problem with it. I filled it in to the positive anyway!
 
Don't think you could get from central London, to Brighton and back within 100 miles. The most direct routes would come in at around 110-120.

If they can figure out a route through Sarf London there's plenty of good riding (and probably plenty of angry residents) They should definitely include Toys Hill on the way back :evil:
It can be done. One of the routes I planned for my BC rides was pretty much starting at the Olympic park, out towards Brighton, and back, finishing on the mall, and IIRC correctly it was 100.6 miles. It took in some nose bleed hills as well. A big consideration is health and safety, and ‘flow’ / timing of the events. A lot of alternative routes have much more challenging hills than the current version, but because they need to get 25000+ riders through, safely, without risky congestion, the majority of them would fall flat on their backs at the first hurdle.
 
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lazybloke

Priest of the cult of Chris Rea
Location
Leafy Surrey
The problem with these consultations is that often the moaners are more motivated that the people who don't have a problem with it. I filled it in to the positive anyway!
I'm sure you're right, although a 2014 petition against the event (on the UK Parliament website) only attracted 22 signatures!
I guess the resistance would be more organised now.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
It can be done. One of the routes I planned for my BC rides was pretty much starting at the Olympic park, out towards Brighton, and back, finishing on the mall, and IIRC correctly it was 100.6 miles.
Towards Brighton, maybe, but not to Brighton. You couldn't get from central London to Brighton and back within 100 miles. The straight line distance from the Olympic Park to Brighton Pier is 81km. From Trafalgar Square it's 77km, so you could do it in a helicopter maybe, but with not much room for error.

Using a moderately direct route via Turners Hill from SE London to the top of Ditchling Beacon (but not down into Brighton) and back it's 169km, so about 105 miles. That's starting S of central London and turning back N of Brighton. I used to take part in an annual 100 mile ride that started in Addington, 10 miles S of central London and went to Brighton and back via Turners. That was just a smidge over 100 miles.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
A 100 mile route could be devised using the existing starting and finishing points, but staying in London.
 

lazybloke

Priest of the cult of Chris Rea
Location
Leafy Surrey
The precise reason for my stack of rejections mechanism of the ballot seems to be a matter of speculation but is widely held to be based on groupings by age and gender, and possibly also diversity to make the event more inclusive.

Frustrating to see DNS in the results, over and over.


If I recall correctly, the ballot results are due in early Feb this year . Alas, don't recall where I saw this.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
Does anyone know how likely you are to get in through the ballot, and when they release the ballot results?
1) Who knows. It's a long way from a dead cert, put it like that. I've entered every ballot since it started except for one. I've never got a place. I know people of similar demographic to me who have got in, however.
2) Early February.

Edit. Beaten to it by @lazybloke
 
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