Boris Johnson plans two-wheeled equivalent of London Marathon with 30,000 riders

When this was first mooted back in 2005 it was costed at £5.5m so Ken said go away and make it cheaper which is how we ended up with Freewheel/Skyride.

Sponsorship may lighten the load on the public purse but there's still a myriad of other ways to promote cycling in London which offer better value.

No mention in the piece about charity involvement which is a major component of the Cape Argus and underpins its continued success.

Having just ridden "The Tour of Flanders for cycle tourists and mountain bikers" which allows much of the same route as the pros the following day to be ridden with partial road closures and traffic controls to allow cycle priority I have to say that I like the fact that someone is proposing something similar here. It was a fantastic event and there were something like 20,000 riders across 7 routes. I know we like to knock everything in the UK (and my friends told me I shouldn't expect the same sort of service / food stops etc on UK sportive rides, this being my first ever) but Saturday last was one of the best days I have ever spent on a bike and if it could be done here that would be great. Now I wonder if they could brew some Belgian style beers for the finish line........

now that I would go for.
A mass start and a full loop of the M25 sounds ace!!

They should go through the City. On a Sunday it is practically empty.

How about they close the M25 and the 30,000 people can ride around there. It's a lot of people to plan for, so they'll have a lot of room on the motorway, and given the average speed on the M25 is about 15mph anyway, it would be a great demonstration of how bikes are again faster than cars in a busy traffic situation. Of course there would be the obligatory contra-flow section, and even when closed there'll be a tosser in a BMW carving people up, but hey, it's the UK!

On the more serious side, it's good for Boris to dream big, no matter what his motivation, and if this helps to get more people out on their bikes, (and proving to naysayers that it's safe when they don't get mown down the instant their front wheel touches the asphalt)well, good on you Boris!

Well, at least its a proactive move. I like the concept of it, and I would imagine there'd be a great atmosphere. I wouldn't get too sniffy about the route, as long as it went through plenty of interesting bits too.

It'd be quite a spectacle, and it's not all about scenery.

Go for it Boris I say!

There are some interesting bits of road in London and that includes some not so flat bits too.

As a watcher of Twenty Twelve I realise how important the Olympic Lega... ooops sorry Sustainability is. All these politicians have to do their very best to justify the money that the Olympics has cost the nation, so trying to remind people that it was held in the UK will be at the forefront of the agenda of everyone involved for the remainder of their careers. And to be fair as it is in England the people will probably go along with it. Let's face it how long have "we" managed to live off winning one Football World Cup almost 50 years ago.

And having to put up with the moans of the general public in Stoke each year cos the roads have rolling closures for the Tour of Britain I can just see the complaints rolling in for major road closures for an amateur event, cos let's face it cycling gets such a good reception in the capital (and the UK in general) as it is from the GP.

So much negativity!! Life is full of surprises and experiences... sticking to the same old routine(s) make it boring.

At least someone is trying to do something for us cyclists....

Sounds like a recipe for the biggest stack up in history.

DO you feel better after getting that off your chest ?

... and relax.

The trouble with a two-wheeled equivalent of London Marathon is that cyclists usually demand something a bit more interesting than runners, who are too busy staring at the tarmac a couple of meters in front of them to notice that most of London is a flat, featureless eyesore. Can't we get a British equivalent of the Etape - you know a challenging route (so the Etape Caledonia doesn't count) on closed roads somewhere you'd actually choose to ride? The choice of potential routes for this thing isn't exactly enticing:

Quote:

The first follows the route of next year’s Olympic Road Race

I think people are massively overestimating the long-term appeal of the Olympics for cyclists. Do people in Beijing or Athens or Sydney ride the route of their road races? Or do they choose the best and quietest roads in their areas that probably weren't included in the race route for logistical reasons?

Quote:

Also under consideration are a loop following the North and South Circular Roads

Wow, cycling on London's inner ring road. That would be a life's ambition fulfilled. Who needs majestic mountain vistas when you can ride past one of the world's finest collections of graffitied concrete structures and derelict land scattered with fag-ends and abandoned crack-pipes.

Quote:

a route that starts and ends in Stratford’s Olympic Park with riders passing some iconic sights in Central London before heading out into the Essex Countryside

There is a reason the Dunwich Dynamo rides through Essex at night - because it is so dull in the daylight you are actually less likely to fall asleep riding through it in the dark.

Quote:

a fourth option starting in Greenwich and covering some of the roads in Kent raced in Stage 1 of the 2007 Tour de France

You mean the route that resulted in that famous mountain goat David Millar getting the polka dot jersey? Apart from the last great sprint of Robbie Mac, that was a bit of a snooze too.