UPDATE: In a statement released on Tuesday 17th May, RideLondon admitted the 22mph information was “stated incorrectly” and confirmed the “event safety car would travel at a pace determined by the conditions and what is happening on the road”.
Any early starters at RideLondon hoping to set a fast time may find themselves stuck behind an event safety car, which will travel at the head of the event at 22mph (35.4km/h).
The news was revealed in the event guide emailed to entrants over the weekend, and has been criticised by some riders taking part who took to social media to express their disappointment at the decision.
Due to closed roads, a relatively flat route and the large number of people taking part, RideLondon lends itself to faster riders posting quick average speeds boosted by drafting and the number of groups and chaingangs that form on the road.
This was expected to have been even more so the case this year, with the event debuting its new Essex route, which has less climbing than the previous Surrey edition.
> Is Essex ready for RideLondon? Police defends silence over road safety issues
However, early starters hoping to complete the 100-mile event in four and a half hours or quicker have been left disappointed that the news was not communicated sooner.
A road.cc reader tipped us off about the safety car, saying it “seems ludicrous to me and my friends who have places”.
“Event managers do not set a speed limit on a marathon. It’s closed roads and a fast weekend club run goes faster than this even on open roads and stopping and starting at junctions,” road.cc reader James told us.
“I can see from a safety point of view the importance for many riders not used to riding in a group, however those in the first wave will more than likely be used to this and will have to brake on any downhill, making the ride less safe for them.”
Another entrant posted the news on social media, saying: “A 22mph speed restriction on a flat(-ish) closed road RideLondon route sounds like the most horrific mass pile-up waiting to happen. I would love to understand what went through the head of whoever risk assessed that idea.
“Just to make things even more ridiculous, 100 miles at 22mph = ca. 4 1/2 hours. Yet when filling in the online registration form when signing up there was nothing to stop entrants putting down a sub-4 hour target finish time.
“The first few start waves will contain plenty of riders who will comfortably be able to cover the 100 miles in under 4 1/2 hours, so it won’t be long after the start before the riders in wave A will be joined in the bunch behind the safety cars by riders from wave B, and so on.
“It sounds like just the sort of thing a focus group of non-cyclists would come up with.”
Others asked why the news was only being communicated now: “Care to explain why you have disclosed this now when a lot of people who have averaged higher mph in the previous editions have paid up to expect to ride speeds above this? Now contemplating not going.”
Another wrote: “Is this legit? Seems like an awful idea and really should have been disclosed before people entered.”
@RideLondon your info pack states a lead car will be travelling the head of the event at 22mph which no one can pass. Considering average speeds of over 25mph are expected in the earlier waves this will create a massive safety risk as hundreds of riders bunch together behind.
— Rob (@hotstepper83) May 13, 2022
@RideLondon Really?!?!? There are going to be some seriously pissed off riders in wave A. pic.twitter.com/etb0sYUinU
— Angus Rendall ??????????? (@finknottle75) May 13, 2022
We have contacted RideLondon for an explanation on the decision, but have not heard anything at the time of publishing.
It’s madness, all they will do is push faster riders back into later pens. You will have chains cruising at 25mph + with less experienced and recreational riders.
That’s how accidents will happen.?
— Russell (@RKesleyRAAM2022) May 14, 2022
In March, Essex Police defended its silence over its RideLondon 100 plans after concerns over an apparent lack of road safety engagement prior to the event, citing traffic policing cuts and pointing to ongoing Vision Zero work to eliminate road danger.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
76 thoughts on ““Ludicrous”: Disappointed RideLondon cyclists learn safety car will set 22mph pace limit”
If you want to race enter a
If you want to race enter a race. Number on back not bars. Simple.
Maybe they just want to ride
Maybe they just want to ride fast, you dont get many opportunities to ride a closed road so to find out at the 11th hour that there is a pace car setting an arbitrary limit is rather annoying.
Except people have paid good
Except people have paid good money on the basis that for one day, they could ride as fast as theyliked / are capable of on safe, closed roads.
Not cool, and rather negates the appeal of a closed road sportive.
rct wrote:
If you want to ride fast on closed roads but racing isn’t your thing, enter a closed road sportive. Simple. Or it should be…
Rendel Harris wrote:
Where you’re riding near your limit with other less experianced riders who are there for the challenge of the distance and may not be used to others passing them closely and at speed.
rct wrote:
Which is exactly why those faster and more experienced riders will be starting first. This will just lead to bunching at the front, and risk exactly the issues they think they’re trying to prevent.
rct wrote:
So the best thing to do would be to separate the fastest, most experienced riders and the novices as much as possible, wouldn’t it? Jamming a 22 mph speed limit on the front of the event will have a concertina effect on the whole field and increase the likelihood of exactly what you are saying should be avoided.
rct wrote:
best way to avoid this is to put the faster riders in the early waves and the slower riders in the later waves and let the field spread out, it is not to put faster riders into later (non speed limited) waves so they can catch up with the previous groups, otherwise might as well do away witht he waves all together and let everyone have a nice steady cruise around at 22mph chatting in the peleton.
rct wrote:
I don’t think anyone’s saying they want to race (as in, race against other participants). Maybe they just want to ride fast / race against themselves, what with it being closed roads and all…?
The closed roads are there
The closed roads are there for the protection of (up to) 30,000 riders on the route, not to enable them to “race themselves”. Which they won’t be as they’ll be drafting.
Plenty of TT’s in the UK, roadraces and even 3 closed road circuits in London where you can race others, or “race yourselves” safely.
rct wrote:
At the risk of going all Nigel, I’d have thought TTs on open roads were more dangerous than not limiting the speed on Ride London.
As other have pointed out, in
As other have pointed out, in other events the faster riders are those who paid extra to be at the front. Most organised rides ask how fast you have completed previously so you normally get put in faster groups. (although I have been in some where they thought it was better to put faster ones last and slower ones first and accidents have happened).
Now all that will happen is faster riders might deliberately start later so they can travel as far as possible as fast as possible before being slowed down. Also even though there is no big hills or descents, is the car still going to be going 22mph downhill?
rct wrote:
What, like these people?
Saying that it would be
Saying that it would be ‘racing’ if cycling above 22mph is ignorant. In our club we have many ordinary sunday rides that go at about that speed, its very common and not racy.
Prosper0 wrote:
Quite, and most non-racy, non-club riders can safely exceed 22mph on downhills – they’ll have lots of experience doing that. What many RL riders won’t have is experience of is the very large bunch that this measure seems to make inevitable.
While small groups would form naturally, this looks like leading to one massive group consisting of many inexperienced riders with a much greater chances of a really major pile-up.
Glad I won’t be there!
sounds like you are equating
sounds like you are equating going fast with racing, which is not what defines racing.
No sportive has had a safety car travelling in front in order to constrain the speed before, certainly not Ride London. Why they have suddenly decided to do this is unclear but is perhaps from the same ignorant position.
I’m a slightly overweight,
I’m a slightly overweight, over 40 rider. Last RideLondon I did (2019) was 4hr 42min, and I had a fag half way. It was hillier than new route too. This is a pisstake.
I’ve got no problem with this
I’ve got no problem with this as long as they did it before taking the large amount of money from you for participating in the event.
I doubt I’d have troubled the limit too much, but plenty would have and now are understandably peed off. No it’s not a race but people are trained to ride at different speeds and as long as they are safe there is no problem.
Btw yes we all have seen d*ckheds riding like d*ckheads on these sportives many times before. They are a very small minority and this wont stop them, in fact it will enable them to catch the faster riders and potentially cause problems.
Hopefully these fears will be unfounded having said all that. My problem is simply that they have said this now and not when they were taking peoples money.
I have a start time of 6:30.
I have a start time of 6:30. With the possibility of some faster riders hanging back, could make it quite spicy. Surely Essex police knew what speeds might be expected from previous safely held events.
I’m so glad now I didn’t sign
I’m so glad now I didn’t sign up (which was purely because it’s on my wedding anniversary). Farcical.
Steve K wrote:
I absolutely agree, you’re missing a ride just for your wedding anniversary? Farcical indeed!
I’m considering starting up
I’m considering starting up the Association of British Cyclists – the people complaining about speed restrictions for safety reasons will be my first point of call. Happy to give a discount to all those who want to be able to go as fast as they want in Ride London with no thought as to the consequences of their demands.
a4th wrote:
If you took the trouble to read what people are actually saying they are complaining that the speed restrictions are likely to increase, not decrease, potential hazard levels. It’s simple common sense, imposing a speed limit at the front of the event is going to end up with more people having to try to share the same space, increasing the likelihood of accidents. Let the fast riders go off the front and let the less experienced and slower riders ride at their own pace without everyone having to mix in together.
The only danger of people riding fast is the one that this ill-thought-out regulation has created itself, i.e. that some people who want to ride fast will now try to start later and be threading through the slow riders, rather than going off the front where the only danger they could present is to themselves.
The problem is the safety car
The problem is the safety car is not going to stop the cyclists further back doing 25-27mph in a bunch of slower riders, and will just piss off the ones who would start first complete on an average of 25mph. And the car is doing 22mph for the whole course, so what happens on a downhill?
a4th wrote:
Repeating others – but it bears repeating – causing a huge bunching of riders in one group, rather than letting them find their own pace, seems likely to increase the prospect of a pile-up and increase the numbers caught up in it.
It would be interesting to see the safety assessment which identified the nature, extent and causes of the problem that this measure is the obvious solution to.
At the end of the day you are
At the end of the day you are probably right but there really isn’t any point arguing about it. They had a similar speed restriction at the Paris Roubaix challenge this year and at a number of other events on mainland Europe – they just bury it deeper in the small print.
Public liability insurance has got stupendously expensive for a whole host of reasons. I don’t know the specifics of this case but I do know a fair bit about the challenge of insuring weird events like this.
a4th wrote:
We might have to agree to disagree about that 🙂
https://twitter.com/RideLondon/status/1526520760222752769
This has clearly been decided
This has clearly been decided on by someone that is unfamiliar with cycling events and unaware of what actual safety issues there are in a cycling event.
This will create a huge clump of riders packed tightly at the front behind the car as faster people move up through the more inexperienced people with nowhere to go. This is really dangerous.
I’m a heavy rider and have
I’m a heavy rider and have never been fast. And yet, a few years back I averaged 20mph for the entire run back from the Leatherhead to the Mall. It isn’t supposed to be a race, fine, and having a ‘safety car’ would make sense if it was checking that the roads were indeed closed, but the speed seems needlessly low.
So what are they trying to achieve here? The people starting in waves an hour after the start will go as fast as they like; there won’t be a car in front of every wave. All you’ll achieve is to have a peloton of hundreds of riders following the carby halfway around, which will inevitably cause accidents as no-one other than category racers are used to riding at speed in that sort of group.
Brainless.
I felt totally let down by
I felt totally let down by the organisers when they said (after places paid for and confirmed) the bag drop service in place at every previous RideLondon was not happening. So I have to do the ride with my lights and kit in my back pocket
from the 4am ride to the start AND I will have to cycle off right after the event or insist a friend/family members meets me at the finish with clothes and shoes so I can enjoy the post event atmosphere and wait for friends to finish.
With the surprise pace car announcement, with the above, I feel misold.
I dont think they are doing rolling road closures so good luck to the organisers either stopping a few thousand riders overtaking the pace car, or an IYKYK start time of 7am. The 6am wave will be empty!
I’m also irriatated by the
I’m also irriatated by the lack of a drop bag service. Okay, I suppose its my fault for staying in a cheap hotel who don’t do storage of bags until later but the statement that there are a load of places you can pay to leave your bad is taking the micky. Yes there are such places but the one closest to where I am staying costs £15 for one bag for the day and quite a few are not open on a Sunday.
Frankly, I think the ride is going to be more trouble than its worth.
Is this correct? Thats
Is this correct? Thats madness. It would enough for me to pull out.
I saw this at the weekend
I saw this at the weekend when the start waves were sent out (I’m wave E 0640-0655) and thought this might cause a few problems at the front bearing in mind that’s where the faster riders are going to be. I did the 2019 Surrey version at 27.6km/h / 17.1mph and am happy riding in groups, so safety car won’t trouble me, but I’m concerned about the bunching further back, particularly as the organisers have stated this:
“It’s not possible to change your start time to an earlier wave. However, you can join a later wave on the day and don’t need to notify us if you do, but please note you must cross the Start Line by 09:10.”
I’m guess wave A, B & C are going to be empty then?
Secondly, the roads are not all closed for the whole day, however looking at the road closure plans, if fast riders overtake the pace car, they’d have to be going some to go on an open road, so this has been thought through maybe.
Link to road closure maps here:
https://www.ridelondon.co.uk/road-closures/routes
think i’m in the same wave,
think i’m in the same wave, and did an essex route solo at the weekend at around 27km’h so have been revising my time with drafting down to around 5 hours…I can see lots of people calculating the gap they need to leave to the car so they catch it at the finish line….its going to cause chaos
One of our club members did
One of our club members did the Fred Whitton at 18.9mph average.
I don’t think they’ve thought this through. Is it an Audax where there are check points you are not supposed to arrive before?
What if there is a strong wind on the day – 25mph on the flat is a gentle cruise for many road riders in such circumstances, riding on the brakes to follow a car would nark me – as it does every time a MGIF then brakes for our humped zebra crossings in the High Street.
Never forgave Brasher Minor for suggesting that me crashing into a pedestrian who had crossed ignoring Marshall’s, they were knocked unconscious and I summersaulted and my bike landed about 10 metres away, was not a serious incident. The London authority was particularly unhelpful on a FOI request of incidents on the ride, so I don’t see how they can claim there is a safety issue when they suggested to me that they did not have any records of serious incidents.
Anyone think someone has seen
Anyone think someone has seen the Grand Tours and noticed a car is at the start of the ride slowing the cyclists and think they need one to match that, not realising it is for the first 5 miles or so?
I think the organisers have
I think the organisers have confused competitor safety with safety for the public. While slowing the riders down might seem to make it safer – slow = safe, in reality it will increase risk and possible accidents. As already said bunches will merge rather than seperate – there will be more rider crashes, not less. With bigger bunches its possible there will be more public interaction problems, as the groups will be bigger with fewer gaps between to cross the road.
Have they thought this through with the right risk assessors?
This is possible one of the
This is possible one of the daftest ideas I’ve ever heard about. I have taken part in ride London twice both times with an average of over 22mph. Without the lumps of surrey hills, time will be way way faster.
The only thing that this will achieve is a ridiculously large group containing the first 3 waves of hundreds if not thousands of riders. I would suggest the organisers rethink as there is still time to change this very dangerous decision. Lets hope common sense will prevail.
22 mph actual or 22mph speedo
22 mph actual or 22mph speedo ?
Hope the cruise control is better than my car where it won’t work until you get to 25 mph.
The first time I did Ride
The first time I did Ride London, which was the year of the tropical storm, I averaged 23mph and I’d not been riding long / had never raced.
On my second go I managed an average of 25mph. I managed to stay with the front group, I did a turn on the front; it was a brilliant experience and felt perfectly safe.
I entered again this year as I wanted to see if I could make the most of the closed roads and get ’round in under 4 hours. I’m not interested in “racing” as such, just pushing my body on closed roads and enjoying the experience. If we ignore the silly medal, there are no points or prizes. I’m a 45 year old dad who has to work in the morning to support my family, so being safe takes precedence.
I’m now faced with the decision to sack it off and go on a club ride instead, or take my chances starting an hour later and spend 4 hours trying to avoid slower riders. I know there are groups of first wave riders who will be doing this; Ride London have engineered the very situation that they should be trying to avoid at all costs. I hope they have a rethink or there will be carnage.
If I’d known about the “safety car” speed limit I simply would not have entered. If I could get my money back I would. I feel misled by Ride London.
Please take a moment to
Please take a moment to complain to the the organisers:
Online – https://www.ridelondon.co.uk/help/contact-us
By phone – 0207 902 0200
and on Twitter (@RideLondon)
They need to hear the widespread concern about just how dangerous this well-meaning but deeply idiotic proposal is. They haven’t thought through the unintended consequences of riders who quite understandably will take matters into their own hands by the hundred. Word is spreading rapidly, it will spread further in the pens on the day, fast riders will just move backwards into later pens or dawdle at the start line. This will exacerbate congestion (already a concern), which will make crashes and injuries more likely.
“It’s not a race” is a tired and irrelevant line. You don’t need to be in a race to ride quickly, for many that is the whole point of closed roads events. Training rides aren’t races but you don’t set arbitrary speed limits on those. 22mph is painfully slow for a flat route. I know the organisers want to encourage non-cyclists, women etc and discourage trained club riders from taking part in Ride London, but they need to be realistic and accept that quick riders will slip through the net and get places anyway. Endangering them on the road is not the solution.
Vélo Birmingham had its problems, but they nailed this aspect. Two motorbike escorts plus a lead police motorbike out front, letting the front group set the pace, which was around 25mph on a rolling course. No problems, no dodgy moments. Where were the crashes and the fatality? Way way back in the congested middle.
we started in the first wave
we started in the first wave at Velo Birmingham and whilst we maintained a comfortable 17mph average to the first stop, so not at all keeping up with the really quick riders ahead, the rider who died was only ahead of us by about 20mins, and it wasn’t congested at that point on the course.
You also had the corporates
You also had the corporates in that who would have been slower then the fast ones.
That part of the course where the death occurred was a small vale so a steepish winding road down into a similarly fast uphill but under some woods. So a rider doing 40 still could easily have crashed into one doing 10, especially if they dropped their chain etc. And the woods would have meant lack of vision as even with sunglasses, the eyes would have needed to adjust. All speculation on my part though as I don’t think they ever had an enquiry into it.
Our guess was just a touch of
Our guess was just a touch of wheels maybe a rider drifted across their line half wheeled and just took their front wheel out from them, we’d seen several crashes like that prior to it, and plenty more after.
TeamVCRT wrote:
If that were the goal, they should have announced this before people signed up
Isn’t there an event the day
Isn’t there an event the day before for less confident cyclists? There used to be, I marshalled one once.
Done.
Done.
In previous years I rode with fellow club members in Wave F, and we passed Wave C riders with no discourteous or dangerous behaviour. So it’s apparent that the Wave system mostly worked as we didn’t conflict with fast riders nor the general public. The only accident that I saw was due to rain and surface gravel, though there was a medical emergency elsewhere. So hard to see how that wasn’t just representative of 25,000 riders on any Sunday. Certainly not apparent how a 22mph limit would address either of those, other than to bunch up for greater danger to all.
Appalling.
On a serious note, I’m
On a serious note, I’m guessing the average speed limit is almost certainly an insurance requirement. A 20-30,000 person open entry cycle event where a number of people have died or suffered life changing injuries in recent years is going to be prohibitively expensive to ensure unless you can demonstrate you are doing everything you can to reduce dangerous behaviour. Not great but if you want to race or take part in a time trial this sort of event isn’t for you.
Accidents tend to happen when
Accidents tend to happen when riders are more bunched up. If anything this speed restriction will increase risk as a large group of riders will form behind the “safety” vehicle.
Ride London had a big crash a few years ago which happened mid pack due in part to the large volume of riders at that point.
Then its being insured by
Then its being insured by people who don’t understand the risks, as IME on closed road sportives, and even open road ones, its when riders are bunched up that touches of wheels occur, and people can be brought down, often ending their ride on the spot, even at walking pace.
It’s much safer to let riders spread out and find their natural pace.
Genuine question – have there
Genuine question – have there been life changing injuries from Ride London before?
I though most the deaths were heart attacks and were in line with stastical probability.
Coma resulting in rider death
Coma resulting in rider death from a crash in 2016, and then in 2017 a pedestrian died from injuries sustained after being by a participant. Plus the other health related fatalities you refer to.
IMO the risk sits with the
IMO the risk sits with the less experienced slower riders, not the more skilful faster riders. The team of 100 safety marshals will never address where the risk truly sits. The several detrimental effects on rider safety and the reasons are really well set out here in the comments. As the organisers asked entrants what their expected finish time would be (sub-4hrs was an option) and informed us 2 weeks before the event about the speed cap, I’d say this is grounds for getting your money back.
Thing is I don’t get what’s
Thing is I don’t get what’s changed. They managed to successfully run the Surrey 100 for 10 odd years with no 22mph safety car and a bag drop.
What’s changed?
22mph isn’t particularly fast
22mph isn’t particularly fast. Frankly, on a flat course like this I would be expecting to be averaging comfortably over 22mph even if the road’s weren’t closed once out of London. That wouldn’t even be pushing particularly hard – just comfortably a comfortably fast easy century. With closed roads the usual factors slowing people down are removed, so even the London sections will be fast. 22mph is open road club run pace for many.
It would be interesting to understand how the 22mph limit was determined. It’s slow enough to be well within the capabilities of a large portion of the riders who will be taking part even on open roads, which makes me think that they haven’t really put much consideration into it.
It really seems like this is
It really seems like this is a poor choice.
even if they want to limit the speeds, then choosing 25 or 26mph would have affected only a few riders, while making little difference to the safety of the riders, marshalls, pedestrians.
After all the vast majority of our road network is apparently safe at 30 for all users.
When did Kermit and Miss
When did Kermit and Miss piggy invade the comments section?
I think the one shouting
I think the one shouting muppet is the PBU we thought you were as you joined at a similar time of his last ban.
I kinda miss being called
I kinda miss being called Nigel ?
You are certainly as thick as
You are certainly as thick as Nigel
Unless you’re subtly
Unless you’re subtly appreciating OurFormerNige’s ability to consistently yank people’s chains even after becoming notorious … I disagree. Just having a different viewpoint (and not trolling) doesn’t correlate with lack of intelligence. Others on this thread are already illustrating “contrarian lacking comprehension”.
Lukas wrote:
You sound nice.
Pure speculation but I wonder
Pure speculation but I wonder if the reasons for the speed restriction are more to do with public perception of the event being safe, so it can continue yearly, rather than any faux safety concerns. Essentially it’s an event run by an events company that will be making a profit. Any event like this attracts huge public criticism for inconvenience caused, so it’s probably more important to appease the Essex councils and residents rather than the entrants (the majority of which the speed restriction will cause no issues). Wonder if this restriction was always intended but not publicised so it didn’t scare the faster entrants away.
I feel for those who want to ride fast and set times, but there are 100mile time trials if you want to do it properly, where you don’t benefit from the draft. It is essentially a participation event aimed at people to complete, not race.
if thats so they should
if thats so they should clearly state it, especially as people who signed up to this have had this sprung on them only two weeks out from the event.
and given the number of charity places still on offer I dont think its exactly a sold out event, and no-one is going to be fooled signing up for next year, so how exactly is this a profit making enterprise ?
It really isn’t worth
It really isn’t worth entering closed road events like this in the UK. Almost any event on mainland Europe will be better, easier to enter and get a place in and not milked for all they are worth by the organisers flogging charity places.
Seems like some of the Essex
Seems like some of the Essex locals arent so keen on the event happening either,not exactly confidence inspiring that they are still having access conversations like these only 2 weeks from the event maybe this is the issue trying to minimise the total time closures are in place https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c72tqp
plus parts of Essex get 3 days of various road closures to cater for the Ride London classique taking place.
The same stories were
The same stories were happening within similar time frames for all closed road sportives. I remember the Velo South (which was cancelled on the day due to weather conditions) having stories of a court order being sorted to stop it 2 weeks beforehand.
There was even one person complaining they had to leave the night before now to get their daughter to an interview at Birmingham Uni on the Sunday that she had to attend and couldn’t miss. So essentially if the cycling wasn’t happening, they would have been relying on the journey being ok on the day for such an important event. And should have been thankful that they went the night before has the bad weather closed lots of roads on the day.
Totally ignoring the merits
Totally ignoring the merits (or otherwise) of a safety car, and by extension a speed limit, it strikes me that this is a material change to what was advertised. With that in mind, if those who have entered aren’t happy about it, I think they’d have reasonable grounds to ask for a refund.
I would seem the ban hammer
I would seem the ban hammer has come down – is John Stevenson in the building?
I noticed the number of
I noticed the number of comments seemed to be decreasing!
Twitter Pete Smart
Twitter Pete Smart
“This has got me thinking. Why don’t we have orange safety cars permanently driving around at or below the speed limit? 20 in urban areas, 70 motorways etc. Illegal to overtake them. Save lives, reduce stress. I’m going to patent it. (Wouldn’t apply to closed road sportives!)”
*snark* In urban areas these
*snark* In urban areas these rolling road blocks are called “cyclists”.
We’d need one in front of every car though. So why not make it really small and even closer? Say on the dashboard right in front of the driver… or indeed even smaller and in the software (colour can then vary…) Of course for maximum (lack of) points this would also need to vary (downward) with temporary road restrictions, with time of day, conditions etc.
Oh wait – that would
cost manufacturers extrabe unsafe! Because as courts accept sometimes you have to accelerate for safety. That somehow means we can’t limit speeds (don’t tell the lorry drivers).Hmm, for someone who
Hmm, for someone who complained about slower riders on Ride London and was completing it in 22+ mph, you seem to have changed your tune now Nige.
Only experience of these sort
Only experience of these sort of events was London to Brighton many years ago. I drove a support van first year and noticed that anyone wanting to cane it down to Brighton were in the lead groups. Took part the following year with a relatively slow family group that started at a sociable time; was immediately apparent that due to the mass of riders you just had to go with the flow. Sense that Ride London has developed the same way; anyone wanting to hammer it round the course (like the earlier years of the event) should go elsewhere. Guess they could let the lead groups go for it but then if everyone behind can’t behave themselves (ie go with the flow) then it’ll just attract bad press. Victim of it’s own success perhaps, depending on your perspective. A mass participation/celebration of cycling isn’t a race.
Good news everyone.
Good news everyone. RideLondon have released an announcement backtracking on the 22mph speed limit. The safety car will travel according to “conditions on the road” (in other words, will stay ahead of lead group).
This is a welcome development and credit due to them for clarifying and apologising. I think it’s important to make people here aware, so that fast riders do not head back into wave Z and create unnecessary friction and congestion on the day. See you near the front! 🙂
Yep, this was their response
Yep, this was their response to my email.