Following a bike race and the rolling road blocks.

[Peat]

The OVO Wimins tour comes through my parish next month. I've taken the day off to spectate and ride around a bit.

While it passes my door, I was thinking of spectating further up the course and riding the course home.

Has anyone any experience of following a race route once the riders have passed? Is it a blissful closed-road experience, or do you just get caught in a concentration of angry motorists stuck behind the road block?

[PaulF]

Last time they came through - think it was the Tour of Britain? - there was a pretty solid mass of cars following the race. Not sure it would be the best experience.

And that road is pretty unpleasant in normal traffic...

[grams]

In my limited experience of other events, there's usually a big bubble of closed roads *in front of* the race. At bigger events you can spend like an hour watching random vans, team cars and police go by before the race arrives. But once the riders go through they reopen the roads ASAP.

[The French Tandem]

Normally on the TdeF, lots of cyclists ride parts of the course before the real race, rather than after the race. They get free access to nicely closed roads and lots of cheerful spectators all along the course. After the race, the course looks like a depressing mess with all the junk left there by everyone.

[Jurek]

^
We've done the equivalent of this with The London Marathon on a number of occasions.
Roads are closed from around 07:00, and the race doesn't begin until 09:00.

The last time we did it, a few of us managed to make it all the way up The Mall and through the timing gates -at which point we found that we weren't able to exit the area.
A lady with a very posh voice, wearing more laminated ID around her neck than you could shake a stick at, demanded of us 'How did you all breach this envelope? I have royalty arriving here in twenty minutes!'
She was in charge of security and she wasn't very happy.
One wag otp cheerfully replied 'We rode our bikes from Blackheath'
One of our team didn't quite make it as a soldier had pulled him off his bike before he had reached the timing gates.

It's a ride that I don't think we'll be doing again.
The world has changed since those heady days.

[rafletcher]

Trouble is the OVO tour has a rolling road closure, unlike the marathon of TdF, so riding ahead isn't really an option. Well not unless your a fast rider and the Police don't throw you of the route.

[Jurek]

Trouble is the OVO tour has a rolling road closure, unlike the marathon of TdF, so riding ahead isn't really an option. Well not unless your a fast rider and the Police don't throw you of the route.

We had the police attempt that with us.
We ignored the first police officer, and then when his colleague (about 50 metres further on) told us to stop, we said to him 'Your mate back there has just told us to ride on, and be quick about it'.
Career ne'er do wells, really.

[grams]

We've done the equivalent of this with The London Marathon on a number of occasions.
Roads are closed from around 07:00, and the race doesn't begin until 09:00.

Some of my friends cycled the route a couple of years ago and were literally shoulder-barged off their bikes (there's video) by an official when they turned the corner onto the Mall.

[rafletcher]

We had the police attempt that with us.
We ignored the first police officer, and then when his colleague (about 50 metres further on) told us to stop, we said to him 'Your mate back there has just us to ride on, and be quick about it'.
Career ne'er do wells, really.

And how do you feel about RLJing? 

[Jurek]

We had the police attempt that with us.
We ignored the first police officer, and then when his colleague (about 50 metres further on) told us to stop, we said to him 'Your mate back there has just us to ride on, and be quick about it'.
Career ne'er do wells, really.

And how do you feel about RLJing? 

It's something I do on a regular basis.
What makes you ask?

[Andrij]

^
We've done the equivalent of this with The London Marathon on a number of occasions.
Roads are closed from around 07:00, and the race doesn't begin until 09:00.

The last time we did it, a few of us managed to make it all the way up The Mall and through the timing gates -at which point we found that we weren't able to exit the area.
A lady with a very posh voice, wearing more laminated ID around her neck than you could shake a stick at, demanded 'How did you all breach this envelope? I have royalty arriving here in twenty minutes!'
She was in charge of security and she wasn't very happy.
One wag otp cheerfully replied 'We rode our bikes from Blackheath'
One of our team didn't quite make it as a soldier had pulled him off his bike before he had reached the timing gates.

It's a ride that I don't think we'll be doing again.
The world has changed since those heady days.

I remember it well. 

Somewhere just into Westminster an official shouted we had to get off the roads as the marathon had started.  "Lady, some of the runners are fast, but I think we still have a bit of time before they get this far."

I was the first one through the gates, and wearing this jersey.

[yoav]

Having worked on these sorts of events myself, I have some experience. The rolling road closure starts about 15 mins ahead of the race with police motorcyclists stopping oncoming traffic and pulling them over to the side of the road. Side roads are closed off initially by police then by NEG motorcycle marshals. As the race moves forwards, the police stay ahead of the race. Once the riders, official cars, team cars and the rest of the entourage pass you, there is a police car at the back, after which the road is open.