Great Manchester Cycle. 4th June

[Jethro]

I see that a 13 mile section of Manchester is being completely closed for a mass participation bike event on the Bank holiday Monday 4th June starting and finishing by the Velodrome. 

Riders have the ability to complete up to 4 laps of the course, so a 52 mile ride without traffic sounds quite appealing to me, especially as there is nothing else in my diary for that day.

Will report back after the event.

[Andrew Br]

You need to have entered (and the entry is now full) to be able to participate, or so they say.
There are groups doing 4, 2 or 1 lap(s) with cut-off times for each group, presumably so the course doesn't get too crowded.
We're doing it 'cos we quite fancied riding over the Mancunian Way although we're a little apprehensive about the sharp turns in Salford Quays and Meeja City UK. We're only doing 2 laps because 4 sounded a little boring.
Looking at the weather, we're glad the ride isn't today.

[redshift]

They'd better not shut the Quays road and Media City, some of us are working tomorrow.   

[Jethro]

Well, I turned up and was hoping to get an entry on the day together with quite a few others, but sadly entries had been closed once the 7000 places had been taken, so I just joined in with the others and saved myself a few quid.  I was perhaps the only one riding without a helmet on my white Pinarello Dogma.

With 13 miles of road closed off including some very wide sections of road, I do think they could so easily have upped the limit to at least 10,000  but why have the ruling that "helmets must be worn" by all participants?

I did notice how gridlocked Manchester was beoming at one point by looking over the bridge from the Mancunian Way and wondered about the decision to close off so much of the City that day although local and national radio did regular updates on the road closures (and that it was because of a cycle event!).

I wonder if it will be on again next year.

[Andrew Br]

There were quite a few riders not obeying the "rules"; TT bikes, aero bars, fixies and no helmets.
We did two laps and really enjoyed it. The carnage that we'd feared at the bottle-necks around Salford Quays didn't materialise (although some of the faster riders in the 52 miler complained about being held up).
It was a joy to sweep over the Mancunian Way and slightly satisfying to see the traffic backed up on Princess Parkway. I don't suppose that many of those drivers were too well disposed to cyclists on Sunday.
I thought that the event was extremely well run and organised and I wouldn't be surprised if it ran again next year. They could (legitimately IMO) increase the entry fee and allow more riders to take part. We weren't delayed by congestion (and no, we didn't hold any else up).
Although Helen and I rode round together, I ended up with a time one minute faster than her's. The only difference, since we finished together, was that I went into the feed station at Old Trafford to see what they had (crappy bars, lots of drinks, jelly babies and bananas). Timing is stopped in the feed stations so they clearly had the stop/start mechanisms wrong. The route through is longer than the proper lap.
We'll be entering next year (should it be run again) and I quite fancy having a go at the 4 lap event. I need to convince some fast friends that it's a good idea