Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
  • Olympic road race, Box Hill
  • oldgit
    Free Member

    Any of you planning to watch this race from Box Hill?

    Better get in quick as it’s been limited to 3400 places, 1400 of those going to Surrey Councils and the police..
    No idea how you get a wrist band though, I mean how hard are they trying to make it.

    alanl
    Free Member

    That’s disgusting. I really think the organisers are trying to annoy people on purpose.
    In the shooting world, in which I am involved in a small way, we were told we could not use the National Shooting Centre at Bisley as it was too far away from East London. Instead we get a temporary layout at Greenwich, which will leave no legacy at all.So the road race is going to be 5 miles from there? Great.
    Yachting 130 miles away at Weymouth.
    It’s a joke

    Napalm
    Free Member

    I’m planning to ride off road from Goshall and find a spot somewhere on the course – not necessarily at the top of Box Hill near to the cafe, which is where I assume the tickets are being issued for.

    I’m sure there will be some vantage point to be had by popping out of an offroad trail somewhere.

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    mandog
    Full Member

    Napalm +1

    jeffcapeshop
    Free Member

    That’s disgusting. I really think the organisers are trying to annoy people on purpose.
    In the shooting world, in which I am involved in a small way, we were told we could not use the National Shooting Centre at Bisley as it was too far away from East London. Instead we get a temporary layout at Greenwich, which will leave no legacy at all.So the road race is going to be 5 miles from there? Great.

    well.. given that the road race will be 150 miles long, it’s probably quite hard to keep it in east london. also, competitors will be making their way to box hill by bicycle.

    oldgit
    Free Member

    As my lad would say ‘killed it’ for some reason it’s put me off going to that spot now anyway.
    Napalm, better make sure you’re wearing a collar and tie or you might get thrown out of the County.

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    No idea how you get a wrist band though, I mean how hard are they trying to make it.

    1000 went to councils within the catchment area of the road race so that they could be given out by whatever means the council deemed “fair”. In theory, this should mean youth/community clubs, sports clubs, that kind of thing – part of the community aspect of the Olympics.

    2000 went to British Cycling and an email went out to all members in mid-July with a tick box option: do you want wristbands for Box Hill or The Mall, tick here. This took you to a log in page on British Cycling so it’s auto-complete, basically the system knows who you are, knows you’ve chosen a band for (say) Box Hill and just prints out a label ready for the band to be posted out. Although obviously you have to be a member of British Cycling and signed up to their email newsletter (and actually read the email) for that one.

    Cycling Weekly were supposed to be giving out 500 bands in a free ballot but then they had a falling out with LOCOG about the whole thing and refused to have anything to do with it…

    Bear in mind this test event is supposed to be testing the whole thing – not just the race itself but the logistics of controlling and managing the thousands of spectators, that’s why it HAS to be managed for sensitive areas like Box Hill.

    I’m sure there will be some vantage point to be had by popping out of an offroad trail somewhere.

    Doubt it, you should have seen how controlled the Olympic XC test event was – you couldn’t sneeze without correct accreditation. Box Hill will be properly closed off and marshalled.

    oldgit
    Free Member

    Blimey someones got their sensible underpants on.

    So best to sit tight, I’m a little concerned that I’d pick a spot somewhere else only to find restrictions there as well.

    Sadly I’m not BC, just LVRC and chairman of the local road club.

    brakes
    Free Member

    they’re taking the fun out of what little fun there is in road racing

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    OK, the procedure might not be perfect. It probably isn’t, there’s always going to be someone who’s unhappy about it.

    But look at it logically. Box Hill is a SSSI with many rare plants and wildlife. This race is MASSIVE and with recent British success at the Tour, cycling more popular than ever before and the interest in it is huge. Plus it’s in the most heavily populated part of the UK.

    So you could have a total free for all; anyone can turn up, park wherever, camp wherever and the result would be carnage. Locals pissed off, massive traffic problems, Box Hill’s rare plants trampled underfoot, huge uncontrollable crowds.
    Or you can have controlled access whereby there are official parking zones, park & ride schemes, minimal disruption to the locals and the wildlife, a safe race and everyone who is lucky enough to be there gets a good view.

    Now I know that on the continent they can quite happily have a million pissed up fans all over Alpe d’Huez with very few problems but Box Hill isn’t the Alpe – it’s a lot smaller for starters and the culture over here isn’t quite the same. There HAS to be some sort of control. You can argue about how they’ve gone about that (the general idea behind it is that the wristbands are going to those people who support cycling (ie members of British Cycling who, by definition, are supporting GB Olympic success in a very small way)) but this will allow LOCOG to test out all the logistics and work out how they’re going to cope when there are 5x that number of people on race day itself.

    oldgit
    Free Member

    I had taken it for granted that no vehicles would be allowed up or near the hill.
    I’m sure I’ll find a spot that’ll make me happy.

    big_n_daft
    Free Member

    but this will allow LOCOG to test out all the logistics and work out how they’re going to cope when there are 5x that number of people on race day itself

    the wrist bands are for the actual event not some test event

    the issue is compounded becuse they do Box Hill a number of times

    the limitation will be more due to minimising costs (barriers and parking) as much as protecting the SSSI hence the arbitary number chosen, probably equates to 1 deep on both sides all the way to the top

    convert
    Full Member

    In a weird way that kind of makes me happy – the bit where most people who will be there are into cycling. My wifes big into swimming, swam the channel last year and so on. She was desperate to get tickets to the swimming at the Olympics – applied for loads but no joy. Her boss got tickets to one of the finals nights however. When the swimming world champs was on the telly last week she asked him if he had been watching – “why would I do that?” was the reply – “well I thought you might be interested seeing as you bothered to get olympic tickets” – to which he replied “nah, don’t really like swimming, but thought I might as well apply – think I might be bored rigid!”. She was not best impressed!

    3500 does not seem that many folk- hope that’s for a small areas. Wasn’t it a million spectators that made it onto the Alpe d’Huez for the time trail up it in 2004? I know the alp is obviously a lot longer but you’d have thought a few more than 3500 would get a pass.

    gee
    Free Member

    Riding round there tonight, every path that leads onto the route, footpaths and bridleways, was signed as being closed the day of the race. I can’t believe they will be able to police every one, though.

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    the wrist bands are for the actual event not some test event

    No, the wrist bands are for the Test Event (called the London-Surrey Cycle Classic) on August 14th (ie 2 weeks time).
    Race starts on The Mall at 9am, Box Hill is reckoned to be about 10.40 – 11.20 cos they do 2 or 3 laps of it, with the finish on The Mall again at about 12.15

    I can’t believe they will be able to police every one, though.

    Trust me, they will. I can guarantee that there will be marshals at every single access point…

    Best place to watch (IMO) is going to be Richmond Park, they go through it both on the way out and the way back.

    spacemonkey
    Full Member

    I’ve been trying to get some sense out of the local council but to no avail so far. There seem to be brownie points available to those that want to help make foreigners welcome and put up 4 giant screens.

    Will likely be checking out the test run on 14th Aug.

    IMO there are so few vantage points around that section that it’s no surprise places are limited. Tis a shame. And even though I know the place like the back of my hand, I reckon it’ll be difficult to smuggle oneself in for any length of time without being evicted.

    plop_pants
    Free Member

    Hmmm, I ‘won’ a pair of wrist bands for the test event but if they are only going up box hill a couple of times, is it worth the effort?

    gee
    Free Member

    In that case, what are they going to do when you pop out on your mountain bike adjacent to the road? Tell you to sod off? As long as you’re not on the road what’s th problem?

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    In that case, what are they going to do when you pop out on your mountain bike adjacent to the road? Tell you to sod off? As long as you’re not on the road what’s th problem?

    You won’t get near the road! Access points will all be closed off. The ‘problem’ is that you won’t be able to ride or even wheel your bike around, there’ll be too many people!

    This isn’t just about the race. It’s about the media points, siting TV cameras, police, crowd control, marshal training, the fact that there isn’t “just” a race, there’s the whole massive convoy of cars and motorbikes that goes with it, probably a helicopter and they will be throwing the kitchen sink at it, making sure that all their procedures are in place for the big day when it goes out live to half the globe. It would be slightly embarrassing therefore if some random MTBer just happened to ride out into the middle of it all. So they won’t allow it to happen.

    hh45
    Free Member

    Is it limited access to Richmond Park as well? Thats jam packed on a normal sunday.

    lazybike
    Free Member

    We were planning a club ride over to watch, guess we’ll have to go somewhere else, I’m finding it difficult to remain positive about the olympics.

    Ewan
    Free Member

    Complete bunch of arse.

    What’s the difference between Seb Coe and the Olympic clock? A “l”

    mudshark
    Free Member

    I live down the road from Boxhill and ride with a local club – who have been given 6 places for the test run. A guy I ride with in the club lives on the main road on Boxhill and he’s talking about having some of us over to watch from his place.

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Bit more info here:
    http://www.londonpreparesseries.com/roadcycling/spectator-info/index.html

    Still not sure why everyone is getting so hung up on Box Hill, you can watch the race from pretty much anywhere else on the race route for free with no restrictions…

    clubber
    Free Member

    Still not sure why everyone is getting so hung up on Box Hill

    Because the race goes up/down it nine times so there’s a good chance that’s where it’ll be settled. Any other point and you’ll only see the race go by once (or maybe twice if it’s part of the course that’s ridden both ways)

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    you’re right that it’ll be a good place to watch from as they pass 9 times, but it won’t be settled there. It’s been organised so any advantage a climber can get up BoxHill 9 times will be overcome by the peloton in the remaining 30 odd miles so then Cav can win in a sprint on the Mall.

    clubber
    Free Member

    Yeah, quite possibly but it’ll still be the place that gets you the most viewing.

    I think it’s more of a Cancellara course myself…

    aP
    Free Member

    I think everyone has now worked out how Cancellara rides and can anticipate his huge jump about 5K from the end, in fact he’s probably got it written down on his 2012 calendar its so obvious now.
    I think we’ll take our cx bikes out and see how we get on by riding out along Staine Street.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    Can’t really understand why they have persisted in using box hill rather than switching the course to something a little more spectator friendly. Box would have been great if it could have supported huge numbers of people but as it can’t why bother, the Surrey hills has other hills. Why create a focal point for the race in an area where (for perfectly good reason) there is a limit on the number of people that can view it.

    I doubt that the race will be decided on Box Hill though, it’s not that big a lump even if you do need to do it 9 times and it’s a long way out from the finish so plenty of time for the sprinters teams to ride them back into the race.

    Is there likely to be a problem with televising the race what with it taking place below some of the busiest airspace in the world?

    clubber
    Free Member

    Obvious doesn’t mean that they can always stop it… Let’s face it you could have said the same about three or four years ago and yet how many times has it still worked for him?

    mattsccm
    Free Member

    Politics not sport. All that crap about community and youth etc. Get everyone involved b*********s. As to be expected many a true cycle fan won’t be allowed in, as with other sports as indicated above. Am I the only person who sees nothing good about us having the event and plenty wrong? Prestige? WTF is that?
    Rant over, going for a ride in the rain.

    xcgb
    Free Member

    I live next to the route in Gomshall and can confirm they are closing the footpaths/ bridleways that access the road, still going to give it a go though!

    xcgb
    Free Member

    How odd I have just this minute had an Email saying I have got a couple of wristbands to the box hill area!, I did enter on guildford BC 🙂

    skaifan
    Free Member

    It does leave the rest of the surrey hills open, which hopefully means less people on the trails while the road race is going on.

    njee20
    Free Member

    How odd I have just this minute had an Email saying I have got a couple of wristbands to the box hill area!

    For the test event, or the actual thing?

    xcgb
    Free Member

    Just the test!

    scottishbadger
    Free Member

    I’m a winner as well – just got email from Surrey CC.

    njee20
    Free Member

    Aaah, you got some as well, so they’re like a sympathy present?

    xcgb
    Free Member

    Hmmm wasn’t that popular then!

    haighd2
    Free Member

    I live in westhumble and can assure you that people on here citing the views of local residents as a reason for having restricted areas and wrist bands are talking out of their rear ends. I have no interest in road cycling however having been told that I’m not allowed on box that day you can bet i will be sure to go there. To me its annoying that they are closing the roads for a day but if they have to in the name of the Olympics they might as well let people come and watch it from the best possible vantage point. If that means ‘chaos’ then so be it, it will add to the atmosphere and local residents are going to be disrupted anyway, if some plants get trampled then so be it is one day they will survive. health and safely of spectators on the ‘steep grass’ has also been used as an excuse for this wrist band system which obviously is nonsense. I wonder whether when leo salmons ‘gave box hill to the nation’ he would have approved of the idea of restricted areas and wrist bands? probably not

    http://www.londonpreparesseries.com/documents/road-cycling/info-for-wristband-holders-2.pdf if you scroll down to the bottom there’s a map showing the restricted area and within that the spectator ‘area’. this seems to indicate that if you have a wrist band you will be forced to view from the spectator area? (I hope I’m wrong about that) an area that could feasibly hold 3500 people. The ‘restricted area’ however could probably hold 350 000 people or more , yes some grass would be squashed and some sheep would have to be moved. If only 3500 people are allowed in the restricted area its going to crate a bit of an anticlimax.

    the zigzags can just about be seen from our garden and with the aid of a telescope you would get a fairly good view of the race for about 10 seconds anyone who cant get an official wrist band can view the race from our garden. Unfortunately due to the nature and shit in our garden and it being near a sssi and a health and safety considerations spectators will have to have an unofficial wrist band. Due to the sensitivity of the ‘wild flowers on our lawn’ and local residents views numbers will be limited to 0.35 people wrist bands are free however all are subject to a booking fee.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)

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