AIBU to think this event should never have happened.

[DaisiesAreOurSilver]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mare-newborn-foal-die-because-15637103

Big cycle race of 100 miles in our area yesterday. Road closures from 5.30 am till 12.30 pm. Some streets were totally cut off for the whole time.

Residents were just told they should have parked outside the area the night before. For some that would mean a walk of a mile, given how many roads were closed. One family escorted through because they had a flight to catch but had to wait 25 minutes for an escort.

Carers were unable to visit the housebound clients, meals on wheels couldn't get through and the stewards didn't give a stuff. For some people it wasn't a question of finding a way around there were areas that were totally cut off for the duration.

But worst of all the stewards wouldn't let a emergency vet through and a mare and her foal died. The foal would have been worth a lot of money as was the mare. I hope the owner sues for every penny she can.

Residents are very angry and cannot understand why permission was granted for this to happen. If they try it again vigilantes have said they'll force the roads open if they try to close them. Feelings running very high.

So a whole group of people can be tarred with the same brush just because it’s something that some people do?

So all car drivers are wankers? Or all dog owners are lazy and don’t pick up after their dogs? Or all football fans are hooligans?

That’s acceptable to say?

The Bill of Rights poster is also irrelevant because roads are closed in the US for similar events

Quite - a friend ran the NY marathon last year and I'm assuming she wasn't dodging yellow cabs on 5th avenue as she did so.

It sounds badly organised or publisied. The vet should have been allowed through.
I love on the route of the annual Surrey event. It's in August but I have known the exact date for months and I know when the roads will be closed and where the emergency access/exit point is. It's very well organised. Perhaps it helps that they've been using this route since 2011 when they did the practice run for the 2012 Olympic cycle races. They've pretty much mastered the organisation now. Where I love it cuts off half our village for half a day. About 4000 people. There are the ones who moan every year but the majority of the residents love it. It's a great party atmosphere and a great sporting event right on our doorstep.
It sounds like better communication, community involvement and emergency planning is needed for your event. Most people should however really be able to cope with no access to a car for one day if they have enough notice though.

This is a 'new type' of event in scale compared to either marathons or professional road cycling so I don't think all comparisons being made are appropriate. As someone said earlier, the Tour de France or Tour of Yorkshire are professional events, with a peloton and a just a few other groups of riders who will pass through each point within an hour (at most) of each other after which the roads are opened. Amateur cycling events like this will have way more cyclists of different speeds and abilities trundling past for hours. And it's on a much bigger scale than running events as the distance of roads needing to be closed is nearly four times a marathon and (as other posters pointed out) you can't safely have many crossing points, since cyclists are so much faster and more dangerous than runners.

If my mums carers couldn't get to her she wouldn't eat food or take her meds, she has dementia and would be seriously affected by such an event. She has 3 visits a day and they are extremely tight for time. We have no family close by.
If events like this are going ahead they need to make sure that they plan for the vulnerable and allocate planning and resources to ensure they are at most a minor inconvenience rather than a danger to residents

I'm a keen cyclist who cycles over 100 miles a week. Ive also volunteer marashalled at pro cycle races, the ones I've marshalled at only have rolling road blocks.

If I was unable to leave my house/street all day I would be very unimpressed. And not allowing a vet through is awful. But I understand once the race has started they can't risk the lives of cyclists.....but maybe they could have escorted the vet. Or looked at doing rolling road blocks so people weren't in this situation?

We have an Iron Man event and the cycling part runs through our town. Holds everything up for a whole day, but we literally have the cyclists passing through. It totally divides the town.

It sounds badly organised and like the stewards need more training. We have one here once a year and our village is totally cut off for much of the day, BUT we are given tons of warning, they have rolling closures so that no one place is cut off for the whole day, the stewards are generally very accommodating and helpful (and have a really clever way of getting cars in and out of the village during the race by using roundabouts) and everyone uses their common sense and plans ahead. It all goes smoothly and now we've had about five years' worth of these, there's a bit of a party atmosphere in the village and it's rather nice. It's horrible about the horses, and that shouldn't have happened, but vigilantes - really?

17,000 entrants also sounds way too big to be done safely on residential roads.

I’d be deeply unimpressed to not have access to my car for a day to facilitate someone else’s hobby.

Caring responsiblites for adults and animals mean I need to be able to get and about.

We have a bike ride going through once a year, but thankfully roads are not closed for 7 hours. Those mocking people for saying they are cut off - when the bike road goes through, it is not just cars that can't get through, but pedestrians as well. You can't cross the road at all as it is dangerous to do so - the bikes are so fast. I don't know if that was the case here for 7 hours, but it isn't all about cars.

YANBU. Cyclists (Some of them) really piss me off. Their sense of entitlement knows no bounds.

How DARE they be allowed to close off an entire area for half a day? Use a fecking velodrome FGS.

DarlingNikita - I agree entirely that the owners( receive full compensation for both mare and foal. The point I was making - possibly not too well! was that for a mare and/or foal to die in these circumstances, is absolutely dreadful whether they were worth thousands or "Dobbin" types. They are just as dead. Speaking as a horse lover whether thoroughbreds or cobs.

We have an annual cycling event. Some
Roads are closed, but the absolute furthest someone would to park their vehicle away is one street over. It also runs very early in the morning so that by the time most people are getting up on a weekend morning, the ride is over and the roads are reopened.

For the poster that said that these events support elite sports and then mentioned increasing obesity I don't think elite sports have any impact on grass roots.

All that twaddle about the Olympics but from what I remember there has been no lasting impact on numbers of people playing sports.

I think councils need to take some of the brunt - the event planning team will take as much as they can, anyone would. It’s up to the council to put their foot down and be the voice of the residents.

We have a bike race in our area, which shuts down a major A road intersection, meaning no vehicular movement. Last year it was in the middle of six weeks worth of overnight complete closures for resurfacing (patchwork, anyone) which shut off our whole village, and on the same day as a half marathon in the nearest walkable town, making that impassable too. Did beg the question as to whether the council signer-offers only had a calendar with one month on it! Lol

That’s awful and can understand the inconvenience but as others have said it is only a day, it brings something to the area and plenty of notice is given to make other arrangements. I would rather be put out for a few hours than have however many hundreds of people out racing open roads, that really would be dangerous and piss a lot more drivers off than simply closing the roads.

Velo are a greedy sneaky shower of shit. I suggested they donated their profit to air ambulance and horse charity and got deleted from Facebook! I think this event is a disgrace.

@tulipvase - it may not be called 'road tax', but it is now used to pay for roads:
Vehicle excise duty (VED) on most new and used cars is set to rise from 1 April this year, as part of a government plan to pay for the majority of future road repairs and upgrades through taxes levied against motorists

www.whatcar.com/advice/buying/car-tax-changes-in-2019-–-what-do-i-need-to-know/n1153

Just looked them up, if I have the right info - beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10225082/filing-history - they have 8 members of staff, their average salary is £94k. Alright for some isn't it! I know some cyclists got sponsorship for charity but the people running the event being loaded whilst disrupting lives is just rubbish.

That's awful and shows terrible planning by the LA. What were they thinking to deny people carers visits?

Incidentally it's not an offence to ignore a steward and drive through a road block they are marshalling. It's only an offence if it's a police Constable or an accredited person with a permit from the relevant Chief Constable. Terrible shame about the horse and foal.

It sounds like the route is wrong if its cutting off whole housing estates

From looking at the response to the last couple of races - the average Birmingham/Midlands resident really doesn’t want the Velo.

The 2017 race closed roads near me, again thousands of people cut off ( any one suggesting walking really doesn’t understand geography...not all of us can walk where we need to go, my nearest supermarket would be 10 miles down A roads 🤨) again we were promised that access could be given to certain places and escorts would be provided - that didn’t happen resulting in animals going without care for the duration.

There were A Lot of complaints about it...so it looks like the route was changed for this year and those affected were given the same notice and consideration we had...which is to say, zero consideration!

I’d like to see a cost benefit analysis done on what the velo contributes to the local area versus the impact it has and costs that rise from having to work around it.

Carers, drs, vets etc shouldn’t be prevented from working so someone can be indulged in their hobby.

The reason it makes me cross is nothing to do with anti-cyclist mantras (I'm all for cycle lanes and safe cycling as a means of transport), but that this is just another symptom of increasing inequality in our society. Cash-strapped councils desperately need new sources of income in order to provide basic services to the poor and vulnerable. So they enter into contracts to host events such as this which allow the upper-middle classes to live out their fantasies of being Lance Armstrong or Bradley Wiggins for the day. It's not a moral or ethical way of funding our collective needs as a society - we should be taxing the wealthy directly instead of via their hobbies...

^This absolutely!!! You've articulated exactly how I feel about it, @grimupnorthLondon

(I'm also a cyclist, incidentally, though not the sort that rides a super light racing bike)