London stage of Tour of Britain

[zacklaws]

Apart for the racing, the final stage in London was about the most disappointing, unimaginable setting that I had seen, how could they do the Skyride in the middle of London, then stage the tour in the docklands with scenery that was the most uninteresting that I have ever seen. I even noticed that Hugh Porter only said once, "what a big crowd" and that was at the finish, what happened to the comment he made on all the stages many times over, "the crowds have turned out in the thousands".

I get the feeling publicity and tourism wise for such a premier event in this country it was a bit of a flop. Should have had middle of London closed off and raced around the centre and shown all the well known landmarks, not a bit of poxy dual carriageway around the docklands and waterfront, for what it was they could have staged it on the outskirts of any seaport city, no one would have known it was not London.

If France can stage the tour in the middle of Paris, then surely we can do the same, just like last year.

Rant over and off to bed now.

 

[theboytaylor]

Think the problem this year was the presence of the Pope in central London - guess there were already enough roads closed off in town. Hopefully it's a one-off, although you never can tell.

I didn't go even though it's not that far from me. Bit of a shame but just didn't have the time to spare. Were you there, Zack? Anyone else go? Ned Boulting's Tweets suggested there was a good turnout.....unless he was being sarky....

 

[gaz]

I went to the tour ride before hand. But didn't hang around afterwards for the pro race.

The problem is the course was on some roads with no places to stand. There was no parking near by, unless you went to the excel centre and paid over the odds. The only places to stand where at the finish line. It was a pain to get to unless you where on bike, but even then it wasn't easy!

Last year it was much better, in a very popular area with thousands of people passing and stopping to watch, the atmosphere was much better last year.
Unfortunately i think that route clashed with the popes visit.

 

[Globalti]

That was unfortunate for the TOB but am I alone in having found the whole thing rather dull? The great Bradley didn't seem interested, on most days the race seemed to split into those few European riders who wanted to race and the majority who just sat up and chatted in the peloton, 20 minutes behind the racers. I thought the crowds were crap, apart from a few school kids press ganged into standing cheering - and even they were more interested in the TV cameras than the riders. Then for Thursday's highlights to get shoved back to 10.30 by the undignified, corrupt game of cheese rolling was for me the ultimate insult to cycling.

 

[theboytaylor]

That was unfortunate for the TOB but am I alone in having found the whole thing rather dull? The great Bradley didn't seem interested, on most days the race seemed to split into those few European riders who wanted to race and the majority who just sat up and chatted in the peloton, 20 minutes behind the racers. I thought the crowds were crap, apart from a few school kids press ganged into standing cheering - and even they were more interested in the TV cameras than the riders. Then for Thursday's highlights to get shoved back to 10.30 by the undignified, corrupt game of cheese rolling was for me the ultimate insult to cycling.

On the whole, from what I saw, I thought it was a good Tour. I have to say beforehand I was a bit sceptical, and definitely disappointed with the London stage. However, the parcours turned out to be quite hard and the bad weather probably made it even more challenging and the race more interesting. Some exciting riding, and with only 6 per team probably made it much harder to control. I think the TV coverage let it down a little - trying to give the story of the whole day in one hour sometimes made it a bit difficult to follow: all you'd see was someone jump off the front for a bit, then the race comes together, repeat. And Hugh Porter probably needs to be replaced as commentator (just wait til the track events at the Commonwealth - boy does he get in a muddle!).


As for expecting Wiggins to figure, looking to one bloke to do something to make the race exciting is always asking for trouble anyway. Plus he's probably focussed on the Worlds TT and is here as much down to sponsor's duties as anything else.


I thought the crowds were fairly decent given that a) it was mostly raced during the week, b) cycling is a minority participation sport, let alone spectator sport, in Britain. Look at the coverage cycling gets generally in the news or the papers - it's really not that popular a sport and as much as we here would love to see wall-to-wall cycling coverage, it's unlikely to happen overnight. I think for the level of interest there is, ToB did pretty well for TV coverage and attendance.

As for the London stage, real shame. As Gaz said, it's a difficult place to find parking and finding a good vantage point - not everyone is going to cycle there. I wonder how big the promo budget was for the whole thing - there's always a difficult balance between attracting the devotees who would find out about it anyway and those new to the sport who may need to be drawn in.

Hopefully next year there will be another good course (wonder if the funding will still be there?) and a more exciting draw for the final stage - maybe a try out for the Olympic RR?

 

[raindog]

On the whole, from what I saw, I thought it was a good Tour.

Me too. Living where I do, I have to rely on written reports on the net and two day old clips on youtube, but it looked like good, hard racing with, of course, the English weather thrown into the mix to make it even more difficult.

 

[rich p]

I thought it wasn't bad, excepting London ( effing Pope screwed that stage). I watched stage 3 in Swansea and there were lots of folk out watching there and a good party atmosphere despite the rain. Sky's poor tactics have been discussed here elsewhere.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I thought it wasn't bad, excepting London ( effing Pope screwed that stage).

Was he in the race too then, he is 75% EPO!

Didn't see the London stage but the rest was pretty good I rec.

 

[strutton1981]

Vuelta a espana final stage in the beautiful city of Madrid !!! Tour of Britian final stage Newham !! i think it was a big let down for british cycling. The perfect finish would of been Tower Bridge or another major London attraction

 

[dellzeqq]

you'd have thought that they would have trialled part of the 2012 road course.

http://road.cc/content/news/21050-london-2012-road-races-be-held-olympic-games-opening-weekend

 

[oldroadman]

you'd have thought that they would have trialled part of the 2012 road course.

http://road.cc/conte...opening-weekend

What a load of ill-informed clueless comments. The last stage was scheduled for central London, long before Mr Pope decided to come. It was moved because the security extended right through the city, and so an alternative had to be found in London. Newham, being the borough for the Olympics, came up with the route (which incidentally has mostly been used for the London triathlon), including some bumpy roads in a 12 km circuit.
It wasn't hard to get to, three DLR stations on the route!!
As for the racing, it was interesting, with some great routes and challenging terrain.
It's so easy to criticise isn't it, when you have no idea of the work involved in running a major one-day race, let alone a UCI ranked 8 day event which must cost at least £200,000 a day, and have to negotiate all the road closure orders, book the hotels, get 350 support staff, etc., etc., etc.
How do I know? I worked on the race for someone, and saw a lot of it first hand, talked to people, found out stuff.
For me the only downside was the big transfer between the Glastonbury finish and Kings Lynn start, two long drives. BUt the race has to go where the money is (se costs above).
So can we all take a more reasoned look and be pleased that there is a national tour at all, because we didn't have one for some years after the Milk Race, Kelloggs and Prutours finished, so all power to the organisers, they deserve support and constructive ideas, and anyway my info is that the Westminster finish is already sorted out for 2011 (popes allowing!!).

 

[Peter10]

I can imagine that shutting down central London would cost too much. The amount of money lost during the day compared to the amount made from the race would probably result in a loss. I agree with the OP, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

 

[BigSteev]

Next time the Pope decides to show his face maybe they can stick him out in docklands (preferably in the water with many lead weights attached)

I gave the London stage a miss after car overheating issue on the way back from stage 7 meant I was tied up sorting out repairs but knowing the route I figured I wouldn't miss much.

 

[Dave5N]

I don't understand why the Tour of Britain is in London. London is London. Nothing to do with Britain.

 

[Paulus]

I was at the last stage of the TOB. There wasn't the amount of people watching along the course that other stages had. The most people were crowded around the finish line, I was up the road a bit at the roundabout by Beckton Park DLR station. There was about a hundred or so there. That part of Newham is actually a bit of a dump and is not very interesting at all. I blame the Pope for his bad timing, maybe he did it on purpose, although living in Italy he should have a bit more understanding of cycling culture.