Junior Tour of Wales rerouted due to 20mph limit

I always thought the road closures effectively suspended the rules of the road for the passage of the race. Certainly on the larger races, none of the vehicles seem to pay much attention to speed limits (or, for that matter, road markings, etc.).

Perhaps, though, as Chris suggests, it's more about the peripheral logistics, outside of the rolling road closure.

Closing the road is relatively easy, and is done regularly in towns/ cities. The problem is suspending the Road Traffic Act, which requires a seperate Act, which can be time consuming.......and the reason why we didn't see any closed road motorsport on the UK mainland until recently (apart from the Birmingham SuperPrix & Jim Clark Rally).

Organisers will either have to re-route future races, or apply for dispensation from the Welsh government to suspend the 20mph limit, allowing race vehicles to keep up with the race.

"It's not about the bike".  Per many road races it's about the motor vehicles or (being less contentious) the "logistics" - which of course always involve motor vehicles.

Given that I'm sure they're aware that emergency vehicles have a certain degree of latitude with speed limits when they state "safety" it's presumably about how they organise marshalling (perhaps "safety vehicles" proceeding / following the race)?

Or is it really simply about getting the usual support vehicles (food / bikes, race officials, any media) along - and they can't do that easily within the law (so those vehicles slowing / re-routing would constitute the safety hazard for the racers)?

(Genuine question - I am not the world's biggest cycle racing fan).

There are two safety elements;

- the general public will no longer be expecting traffic to be travelling faster than 20mph

- the convoy would not be able to operate effectively if taking into account the speed limit.

On that second point, I've driven lead car in races previously, including on a route with a 30mph sector. This took careful management as if you get too far ahead of the riders, you are no longer providing protection to either riders or the general public. If you are too close to the riders, and unable to travel faster (due to speed limits) then you become a danger and impede the riders.

It's hard at 30mph, so I'd argue impossible at 20mph. 

The key thing to remember is that this race, and other amateur races are not running a rolling road closure. If they were, what happens inside the race bubble is fair game. These races however run in live traffic. Junctions are closed as required, but the road remains open around the race. The positioning of the lead cars and convoy effectively closes the road to anyone pulling on to the circuit, bu if someone wanted to be an ah-hole, they could... and they do!

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

The key thing to remember is that this race, and other amateur races are not running a rolling road closure.

Ah - well that makes more sense then. I'm pretty sure the earlier version of the story I read suggested it was on closed roads, but it now says

Quote:

The race is not on closed roads, as temporary road closure orders were not secured in time.

Which makes this sound more like a story about an organisational screw-up somewhere than one that's really about the 20mph limit.

In the cycling weekly story the organiser said that he was talking to Welsh Cycling who were apparently trying to agree some sort of "mitigation" (presumably legislation to grant exemptions from the limit) with the Welsh government, but this didn't amount to anything in the end and there wasn't enough time to apply for road closures.