(sorry this ended up going on a bit)
Well turned up at the finish line on the Mall at 8am yesterday to find another 60 or so volunteers ready to do our bit to help. The only problem was they only needed 30 people, so I could have had a lie in and turned up at 12 at a marshal point on the course. So after being told to come back at 10am when they would decide what to do with us, a rather dejected bunch of volunteers got ready to see the juniors race. And a very good race it was too. A complete mix of ages, experience and bikes. I never knew they did carbon race bike in sizes that small, or that parents would buy them! 6 laps saw a few breakaways a couple of spills and then a sprint for the line. Sorry can't remember the winners name, but he cycled for Scottish Provident.
10 am came and we got an explanation for the mess up with the number of marshals. Some people had obviously decided to go home, or go to other marshal point on the course, leaving about 15 or so of us to double up on crossing points round the circuit. My point was opposite horse guards, which meant that most of the first hour was spent telling tourists that no there wasn't going to be any parade today.and what the 'big building over there' was. The youth and women's race (what we saw of it) seemed to go very well, with breakaways getting away and being chased down. The Bob Chicken crit race series had already been won but the race itself had some more spectators watching it, as well as a big crash at the turn to Birdcage walk. After this came the hand cycle world cup, WOW! Those guys were amazing, just wish I was that fit.
And then finally cam the race itself. this was actually the easiest race of the day for us on the crossing points as we had the helicopter above us indicating when they were about to come round again, and no-one was being dropped. The breakaway of 3 managed to keep ahead with a max time of 18 seconds, but where finally reeled in with 6 laps to go, when we had to close the crossing point (or so the police told us, nothing coming from the race organisers). This managed to upset a few people 'nut I Must leave I'm going to be late!', and lots of people asking us how much longer they would he to wait. Still eventually the riders didn;t cope round again, so we assumed the race had finished, and after another 5 minutes opened the crossing up, and went to try and return our marshal bibs. Easier said than done when you're only told 'take them to the start and finish line', and of course there are all the presentations going on, and you can't cross the course!. Anyway we eventually managed to cross the circuit, after all the photos had been taken, pick up the goody bag, and then off home, a very long, sometimes frustrating, but essentially enjoyable day.
The problems with the number of marshals, and getting bibs back are teething problems, and I will be feeding them back to the organisers. However my major gripe is the lack of advertising coming up to the event, lack of crowd information during it, and lack of coverage afterwards. I live in the west of London, but regularly travel into the centre, and although I haven't been actively looking, don't remember seeing any on the tube or on the streets around Victoria. As for the event itself, the number of people who said if they had known there would be a full day of events they would have turned up earlier, and the number who asked what time the main event would get onto the circuit goes to show that it wasn't just me that didn;t see anything. It's OK putting it in the cycling press, but people who read that will turn up anyway, it's your average bloke on the street that needs to be told. On the back of the circuit (were I was), we had no idea what was going on on the main straight as there was no commentary relay to us. Given the size of Horse Guards they could easily have put a screen up there, or simply put some speakers up! And as for after the event, I picked up a copy of Metro this morning, and couldn't find a single line about it, the tall bike tour had a few para, in the main section, and Triathlon had a section in the sports part, but the ToB? Nothing. The only mention it got on radio 5 was in the sports results, at the end after the Ryder cup squad, and when they did a review of the papers sports section, when apparently the Guardian has a feature, mainly about safety, after the motorbikes crashed into the barriers.
Did they do a good job? On the day yes, and those that turned up will be back to see the TdF next year, but only because it's the TdF, and unless they get their act together with advertising, promotion etc, it will be the least attended start to the TdF ever. I don't want to come accross too cynical, but I still see posters for the Notting Hill carnival everywhere!
Bryan
Well turned up at the finish line on the Mall at 8am yesterday to find another 60 or so volunteers ready to do our bit to help. The only problem was they only needed 30 people, so I could have had a lie in and turned up at 12 at a marshal point on the course. So after being told to come back at 10am when they would decide what to do with us, a rather dejected bunch of volunteers got ready to see the juniors race. And a very good race it was too. A complete mix of ages, experience and bikes. I never knew they did carbon race bike in sizes that small, or that parents would buy them! 6 laps saw a few breakaways a couple of spills and then a sprint for the line. Sorry can't remember the winners name, but he cycled for Scottish Provident.
10 am came and we got an explanation for the mess up with the number of marshals. Some people had obviously decided to go home, or go to other marshal point on the course, leaving about 15 or so of us to double up on crossing points round the circuit. My point was opposite horse guards, which meant that most of the first hour was spent telling tourists that no there wasn't going to be any parade today.and what the 'big building over there' was. The youth and women's race (what we saw of it) seemed to go very well, with breakaways getting away and being chased down. The Bob Chicken crit race series had already been won but the race itself had some more spectators watching it, as well as a big crash at the turn to Birdcage walk. After this came the hand cycle world cup, WOW! Those guys were amazing, just wish I was that fit.
And then finally cam the race itself. this was actually the easiest race of the day for us on the crossing points as we had the helicopter above us indicating when they were about to come round again, and no-one was being dropped. The breakaway of 3 managed to keep ahead with a max time of 18 seconds, but where finally reeled in with 6 laps to go, when we had to close the crossing point (or so the police told us, nothing coming from the race organisers). This managed to upset a few people 'nut I Must leave I'm going to be late!', and lots of people asking us how much longer they would he to wait. Still eventually the riders didn;t cope round again, so we assumed the race had finished, and after another 5 minutes opened the crossing up, and went to try and return our marshal bibs. Easier said than done when you're only told 'take them to the start and finish line', and of course there are all the presentations going on, and you can't cross the course!. Anyway we eventually managed to cross the circuit, after all the photos had been taken, pick up the goody bag, and then off home, a very long, sometimes frustrating, but essentially enjoyable day.
The problems with the number of marshals, and getting bibs back are teething problems, and I will be feeding them back to the organisers. However my major gripe is the lack of advertising coming up to the event, lack of crowd information during it, and lack of coverage afterwards. I live in the west of London, but regularly travel into the centre, and although I haven't been actively looking, don't remember seeing any on the tube or on the streets around Victoria. As for the event itself, the number of people who said if they had known there would be a full day of events they would have turned up earlier, and the number who asked what time the main event would get onto the circuit goes to show that it wasn't just me that didn;t see anything. It's OK putting it in the cycling press, but people who read that will turn up anyway, it's your average bloke on the street that needs to be told. On the back of the circuit (were I was), we had no idea what was going on on the main straight as there was no commentary relay to us. Given the size of Horse Guards they could easily have put a screen up there, or simply put some speakers up! And as for after the event, I picked up a copy of Metro this morning, and couldn't find a single line about it, the tall bike tour had a few para, in the main section, and Triathlon had a section in the sports part, but the ToB? Nothing. The only mention it got on radio 5 was in the sports results, at the end after the Ryder cup squad, and when they did a review of the papers sports section, when apparently the Guardian has a feature, mainly about safety, after the motorbikes crashed into the barriers.
Did they do a good job? On the day yes, and those that turned up will be back to see the TdF next year, but only because it's the TdF, and unless they get their act together with advertising, promotion etc, it will be the least attended start to the TdF ever. I don't want to come accross too cynical, but I still see posters for the Notting Hill carnival everywhere!
Bryan
there were just as many problems caused by people with tourers, mtb's and general utility bikes as those caused by 'roadies'. The bifggest problem was the peds who hadn't got a clue, like the bloke who pushed his was infront of a crossing marsha and then proceeded to walk up the curse rather than straigth accross the road, or teh people on mobiles corssing at a snails pace despite us shouting at them to hurry as there were cyclists approaching.
