Cycling - Tour of Britain

Sitting in my office in Brum city centre we heard the sound of sirens..... followed by about 20 police bikes, then lots of orange-vested marshalls on Fireblades, then the race leaders sprinting through at around 40mph.

Unbelieveable how fast these guys are going, the motorbikes / team cars following should have been pulled for speeding had they not been involved in the race

Pretty impressive stuff, apparently their route today covers 130km....in three hours.

Think I'll be down the gym later

[timwilky]

<victor>
<winge>
Fecking nuisance, ruining decent rides out by blocking up roads etc.

Why don't they keep to the left in single file as advised in the highway code. We have sections of road round here marked out for push bikes, and they won't use it as they would rather interfere with traffic and then moan about motorists.

Either they should be forced to pay tax and insurance like the rest of us for use of the road or limit their cycling to velodromes etc.
</winge>
</victor>

[Red ones]

Why don't they keep to the left in single file as advised in the highway code.

Because the Highway Code doesn't say that, only for narrow roads![/quote]

Originally Posted by cartwrim

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Unbelieveable how fast these guys are going, the motorbikes / team cars following should have been pulled for speeding had they not been involved in the race

Its a good laugh driving these outrider bikes though. They pay you a load of money to go drive these races, I do them in NYC / Central Park. There is one downhill tight corner bit where they can catch you if you are not careful.
Plus, you get a really interesting picture of the race. Last week one of the Polish team put a break in, which I escorted. Great fun seeing that going on in your wing mirrors.

The only bit that is difficult is when you are driving home, you have to remember that you have to obey the laws now.

Tim...That is not at all like you? Very humorous. You feeling ok fella?

Phillip how did you get a job like that then?

I'm confused, was this a cycling race or what? never heard of an outrider race before.

Its a cycling race, but in front of the pack there are lads on motorbikes, making sure the route is clear, and there are no problems, and to warn people that there is a race about to come through.

I got the job through a mate who used to work with one of the clubs. Apparantly they used to be done by the cops, but now they ask private riders to do it. When you are being an outrider, you can basically do whatever you want to. Your job is keeping people safe though, so you cant get too carried away.
Apparantly they are in need of these riders bigtime in the US, and also in Ireland. So, if you are interested, you should call your local cycle club and volunteer. They pay well over here anyway.

What you have to do is, watch carefully behind you, checking that there are no breaks in the pack, and also watch whats in front of you. If people are being dicks, or asleep on the road, I beep at them blip the throttle, and drive at them a little bit if they ignore that. Other than that there is not much I can do. I warn the roadside marshells that they should be ding their job now so to speak.

"I saw two motorbikes land on one guy, on his body and his head. One guy went up in the air and came down flat on his face."

On the other hand... clicky