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news
Bradley Wiggins - image by Brendan A Ryan via FlickrWiggo and Cav expected to draw huge crowds to Olympic road race
As the opening big event of the Olympics and one of the few you can actually watch for free, Saturday's men's road race was already expected to be big. After Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France at the weekend, and Mark Cavendish took his fourth consecutive win on the Champs Elysees, the authorities have been forced to revise their crowd estimates up to 'huge'.
Helyn Clack, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for community services and the 2012 games, said: “Mark Cavendish could win Team GB’s first gold medal this weekend and just a few days later Bradley Wiggins is tipped to win the time trial, both on Surrey’s roads, so we’re expecting huge crowds.”
Of course (blatant plug warning!) the best place to take in the road race will be a the Surrey Hills Road Race Festival at Denbies Vineyard. There'll be a BBC live screen shwing all the action, and an expo area with 2013 Trek bikes and Thomas Voeckler's own Colnago C59 on display, as organised by er, us.
The festival takes place on 28-29 July at Denbies Wine Estate, just off the A24. It's right next to the route and only a short walk from the Box Hill loop, so there's plenty of opportunities to see the race live. There'll be masses of food and drink available on site too to keep you topped up through a long day of racing.
There's secure bike parking too, if you decide to wander over on two wheels.
Check out the festival website for all the latest news about who's coming and what's happening. As well as that there's a mailing list which we'll use to keep everyone informed about the event. If you want to get updates about the Festival, you can sign up on the event website.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming and Helen Clack says that the council is “urging people to be prepared and plan ahead to enjoy these Olympic events in the county. That will help us minimise the inevitable disruption that staging events of this size will bring.
“It’s a big job. We have to create the biggest venues of the Games from scratch and 42 miles of roadside barriers have already started to be stacked around the road race route.
“There’ll be road closures and parking restrictions along the route on event days, so we’re asking people to avoid driving in the area if at all possible. If you want to catch the action, staying local and walking is the best option.
“Journeys will take longer than usual and public transport will be busier. We’ve provided all the information people need to plan their journeys in advance at gosurrey.info and we would urge everyone to use it.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch Olympic history unfold literally on our doorsteps. With some planning and foresight we can all enjoy it.”
Extensive road closures and parking restrictions will be in place around the race routes from the early hours of the morning this weekend.
Surrey Council says it aims to reopen most roads three hours after the last race vehicle passes. However, it is expected to take longer in areas where there will be larger crowds such as around Dorking town centre, Hampton Court, Leatherhead town centre and Box Hill.
People are being encouraged to use public transport where possible. Extra trains and carriages will be put on but some bus services will be suspended and most trains won’t allow bikes.
Visit www.gosurrey.info for more information on the Olympic Games in Surrey.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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Details are here:
http://www.surreyhillsroadracefestival.com/content/bike-parking-festival...
but it's pretty much exactly like you said. £2 per bike.
Ta Dave.
Surely someone at this venerable site can let us know what form the secure bike parking takes and whether we need to bring locks? i assumed it would be a system where you were given a wrist band, your bike taken and stored and only returned to whoever-hopefully the owner-appeared with the wrist band.
Come on guys, you must know how it is going to operate
Quote:- 'There's secure bike parking too, if you decide to wander over on two wheels.'
I managed to get tickets for Box Hill but the mention of secure bike parks has been bandied about a bit, but does anybody know if these secure areas are still requiring me to provide a lock for my bike or indeed how they will work on the day?
I don't want my pride and joy damaging or stealing or having bits nicking from it.
The secure bike parking is at the Road Race Festival at Denbies, not on box hill. Looks like you'll need your own lock for it - but I'd take the usual precautions of removing bits that aren't lockable etc. It is just a public space, after all...
Our train leaves Manchester at 5:55am... going to be a long day, the wife has requested a bottle of Pimms in my rucksack!
@ John Stevenson - are you THE John Stevenson - as in, two wheels good / early mbuk fame? (don't worry I am not a stalker!)
On another note, I got to ride a little bit of the course yesterday, albeit about 10 miles. Riding next to the barriers, etc that have been put out got me hearing crowds cheering, etc in my own little mind.
Guys I've been informed that only 3000 are allowed into Denbies this weekend can you confirm this?
site limit is 10,000 but there'll be people going in and out all the time
Lol @ Raleigh, but why's it on this story?
No pleasing some people, is there?
The Official Olympic site has been pretty vague apart from some mention of 'ticketed areas' at Box Hill and The Mall. I was hoping up until stage 7 of the TDF that I would be able to saunter down The Mall at 8.30am on Saturday wave at Cav, Miller etc at the Team GB coach and then grab a spot at the barrier.
Now since Wiggin has gone and ruined it I shall be corralled by a bunch of Hi Vis jobsworths into a kettle of barriers alongside thousands of muppets who've suddenly realised that cycling is 'cool'.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
LoL @ Gerrard Vroomen:
Cycling over from relatives near Arundel, so leave a space for my Tricross please. Father in-law is catching the train there from same location - I bet I'm back at the ranch before him ! #allezteamgb
Looks like I'm going to have to resort to using public transport. Train from Guildford to Dorking and then walk to the festival. See you all there.
Public transport is going to be a nightmare!
Probably still end up using it though..
The glorious First Capital Connect into Finsbury Park.. tube to Vauxhall... then onto Box Hill and Westhumble train station.
!
Me too.
I hope what looks like a simple journey on paper is as easy as it looks.
Where are you going from?
Just leave a little gap on Putney High Street for me and the missus!