TdF prologue

congokid said:

Official opening ceremony is in Trafalgar Square from 6.45 tonight.
Anyone here planning to be there? Or at the event itself tomorrow?

I fancy going tomorrow - according to the Guardian, the best way to get
there is by bike and bike parking is provided (doesn't say whether it's
free, though).

I might be there tonight, depends on how much work I get done today. I
suspect I won't be staying for the "concert".

Saturday I'm planning to watch - although I overheard someone on their
cellphone saying estimated 1-1.5 million people, 8km course. Which
means 50ish deep :-(

Sunday I might watch the procession. Trains aren't brilliant in the
mornings.

I'll probably try and fit in two half days of work as well but if
there are any plans for a URC meetup then I'd quite like to say hello
to my "friends".

Tim.

congokid said:

Official opening ceremony is in Trafalgar Square from 6.45 tonight.
Anyone here planning to be there? Or at the event itself tomorrow?

I fancy going tomorrow - according to the Guardian, the best way to get
there is by bike and bike parking is provided (doesn't say whether it's
free, though).

The bike parking may well be on the "Parade" area of Hyde Park, by
Marble Arch. A large fenced off area with a lot of triathlon style
bike racks seems to have been set out. I nearly ran into a pedestrian
on the path as I was clocking it yesterday evening (oops!). Since I
will have been at work from early crack of sparrows tomoz I'm going to
watch it all on the telly - set to record just in case I have an
attack of the ZZZZZZZZZZs
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

"congokid" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Official opening ceremony is in Trafalgar Square from 6.45 tonight. Anyone
here planning to be there? Or at the event itself tomorrow?

I fancy going tomorrow - according to the Guardian, the best way to get
there is by bike and bike parking is provided (doesn't say whether it's
free, though).

Was there ... Got there about 5.20pm ... Already pretty packed. Got a
reasonable spot and a pint ...

It did drag on a bit ... 😉

Still excited though ... !

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 14:50:02 +0100, congokid <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Official opening ceremony is in Trafalgar Square from 6.45 tonight.
Anyone here planning to be there? Or at the event itself tomorrow?

I fancy going tomorrow - according to the Guardian, the best way to get
there is by bike and bike parking is provided (doesn't say whether it's
free, though).

Bike parking is free and there are security guards on the pounds.

There are 28 rides leaving from the London Boroughs to Hyde Park.

The ride I'm taking some kids on starts at Cutty Sark Gardens and
there will be some 150 cyclists in the peloton.

Tom Crispin <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 14:50:02 +0100, congokid <[email hidden]>
wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Official opening ceremony is in Trafalgar Square from 6.45 tonight.
Anyone here planning to be there? Or at the event itself tomorrow?

I fancy going tomorrow - according to the Guardian, the best way to get
there is by bike and bike parking is provided (doesn't say whether it's
free, though).

Quoted message said:

Bike parking is free and there are security guards on the pounds.

Quoted message said:

There are 28 rides leaving from the London Boroughs to Hyde Park.

Quoted message said:

The ride I'm taking some kids on starts at Cutty Sark Gardens and
there will be some 150 cyclists in the peloton.

My partner leads a ride from Brent, which meets with Barnet and Camden
riders at Swiss Cottage. He'll be wearing the regulation green LCC
T-shirt and has a silly white and green LCC flag fixed to the back of
the bike. If he doesn't swing his leg back onto the flag, no doubt some
other rider will...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

Tom Crispin <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 14:50:02 +0100, congokid <[email hidden]>
wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Official opening ceremony is in Trafalgar Square from 6.45 tonight.
Anyone here planning to be there? Or at the event itself tomorrow?

I fancy going tomorrow - according to the Guardian, the best way to get
there is by bike and bike parking is provided (doesn't say whether it's
free, though).

Quoted message said:

Bike parking is free and there are security guards on the pounds.

Quoted message said:

There are 28 rides leaving from the London Boroughs to Hyde Park.

Quoted message said:

The ride I'm taking some kids on starts at Cutty Sark Gardens and
there will be some 150 cyclists in the peloton.

My partner leads a ride from Brent, which meets with Barnet and Camden
riders at Swiss Cottage. He'll be wearing the regulation green LCC
T-shirt and has a silly white and green LCC flag fixed to the back of
the bike. If he doesn't swing his leg back onto the flag, no doubt some
other rider will...

We had a fantastic ride up. The children's peloton, which I was
stewarding, had about 20 children, and we led the way. That was
followed by the main peleton which had about 130 cyclists from
Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwalk. On the way we merged with the
Tower Hamlets peloton and cycled through Marble Arch in one big
peloton of 200 - 250.

We returned in a much smaller peloton of about 20, half of whom were
children. We encountered some truly horrendous driving - especially a
bus whose behaviour was witnessed by the police who booked him.

Tom Crispin <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 08:47:47 +0100, Helen Deborah Vecht
<[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Tom Crispin <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

We returned in a much smaller peloton of about 20, half of whom were
children. We encountered some truly horrendous driving - especially a
bus whose behaviour was witnessed by the police who booked him.

By the time my David returned to Kingsbury, he was only with one other
rider. An Irishman asked the pair if they were on honeymoon...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Tom Crispin said:

There are 28 rides leaving from the London Boroughs to Hyde Park.

The ride I'm taking some kids on starts at Cutty Sark Gardens and
there will be some 150 cyclists in the peloton.

Was there. Had high-viz jacket on.
Jousted with buses and taxis to keep them out of the peleton.
And thumped one white van (I am a little bit ashamed, but the [censored] drove
at me, tried to run over my foot.)

Tom Crispin said:

We returned in a much smaller peloton of about 20, half of whom were
children. We encountered some truly horrendous driving - especially a
bus whose behaviour was witnessed by the police who booked him.

I heard this tale. Pat on th back Tom.

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:11:12 +0100, John Hearns <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Tom Crispin said:

We returned in a much smaller peloton of about 20, half of whom were
children. We encountered some truly horrendous driving - especially a
bus whose behaviour was witnessed by the police who booked him.

I heard this tale. Pat on th back Tom.

It was totally unnecessary behaviour by the bus. The time from front
to rear of the peloton can't have been more than 5 seconds. We were
taking up the whole of the bus lane, with light traffic on the main
carriageway. The bus started to overtake, then pulled *through* the
peloton twice. It then overtook a third time, passed *very* close to
me at speed. It then pulled into a bus stop well ahead and as we were
passing started to pull out. I blocked him, furious at his behaviour,
and he actually made contact with me. After the peloton had passed,
which included children as young as 4 (on a tandem triplet) he passed
a fourth time passing *even closer* to me than the time before. The
police had no hesitation in giving chase when I told them he seemed to
have some sort of vendetta against our group as they had witnessed the
driver's passing manoeuvre.

We suffered no such problems on the way up, but with about 120
cyclists behind the children's and inexperienced peloton I guess we
were well protected. I am very grateful to Lewisham, Greenwich and
Southwalk cyclists for agreeing to have the children at the head of
the ride. Once we'd merged with the Tower Hamlets' ride the lead
group became more mixed, but they weren't privy to our arrangements.

In news:[email hidden],
Tom Crispin <[email hidden]> tweaked the
Babbage-Engine to tell us:

Quoted message said:

We encountered some truly horrendous driving - especially a
bus whose behaviour was witnessed by the police who booked him.

Hurrah!

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
It would appear apparent, to me at least, that dinosaurs were
largely burrowing creatures.

Dave Larrington said:

In news:[email hidden],
Tom Crispin <[email hidden]> tweaked the
Babbage-Engine to tell us:

Quoted message said:

We encountered some truly horrendous driving - especially a
bus whose behaviour was witnessed by the police who booked him.

Hurrah!

I had a run in with a white van full of police on Saturday just off
Picadilly Circus. Van tried to overtake and then pull into the side of
me. Banged on the side hard and then squeezed along to the passenger's
window which was open with the van stuck in traffic. Police officer was
very "yeah,yeah,yeah, thank you, goodbye" about it.

TdeF was great though. Attended the opening in Trafalgar Square which
went on a bit so I left early. Watched the Prologue from Hyde Park and
Hyde Park Corner (interesting that on their warm up laps only about one
in ten wore a helmet though in the race itself they all did under the
rules). Then went back for the Stage 1 start on the Embankment before
watching the rest of the race on the big screen in Hyde Park. Cracking
weather and weekend and it was so pleasant riding traffic free streets
in London. Can't wait for the Freewheel rides in September now.

Tony

Tony Raven said:

Watched the Prologue from Hyde Park and
Hyde Park Corner (interesting that on their warm up laps only about one
in ten wore a helmet though in the race itself they all did under the
rules).

It was very noticeable.
i wonder how many of the helmets used had no 'protective' qualities, and
were purely for aerodynamic advantage.

John B

in message <[email hidden]>, John B ([email hidden]'😉

Quoted message said:

Tony Raven said:

Watched the Prologue from Hyde Park and
Hyde Park Corner (interesting that on their warm up laps only about one
in ten wore a helmet though in the race itself they all did under the
rules).

It was very noticeable.
i wonder how many of the helmets used had no 'protective' qualities, and
were purely for aerodynamic advantage.

None. Fairings are not allowed - they must be protective to the same
European standard as consumer helmets, which is to say not very.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; 'I think we should trust our president in every decision
;; that he makes and we should just support that'
;; Britney Spears of George W Bush, CNN 04:09:03

In article said:

in message <[email hidden]>, John B ([email hidden]'😉

Quoted message said:

Tony Raven said:

Watched the Prologue from Hyde Park and
Hyde Park Corner (interesting that on their warm up laps only about one
in ten wore a helmet though in the race itself they all did under the
rules).

It was very noticeable.
i wonder how many of the helmets used had no 'protective' qualities, and
were purely for aerodynamic advantage.

None. Fairings are not allowed - they must be protective to the same
European standard as consumer helmets, which is to say not very.

Indeed arguably "no 'protective' qualities" at all, overall. While
obviously it would be desirable to combine that level of protection
with some aerodynamic advantage as a side effect, I doubt there is
any and think "under the rules" explains why they are worn.