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.

We were on the route. It was extremely badly organised. We were completely trapped in. @Belenus I suggest you get your facts correct before making untrue statements. We received no notification until last weekend where a leaflet was attached to my car. Nobody else in my area had any either.

It took us over 15 minutes to cross the road safely. One elderly lady was in tears trying to get to church. They were going at least 40mph maybe more. It was constant we took our chance in the end and ran.

Today all the litter and road closed signs and cones are still where they were dumped yesterday. It appears Velo just wanted the money from the participants but not the hassle before or after.

I will be campaigning if they try and have it here again.

It sounds bloody horrendous.

Who the Jeff thinks this kind of thing is a good idea?

We were “trapped”. It was lovely and peaceful on the roads. We just used the trains.

We got the first leaflet through the door about the Velo at about Christmas and it’s been well publicised. There was advice at that point for anyone with caring needs etc.

You weren't trapped if you could get to the train. That wasn't an option for most people.

This just goes to show that the smug, inconsiderate, cycling lobby have far too much clout, something that motorists have been saying for years.

Definitely need to hear more from the smug, inconsiderate motoring lobby. The injustice of it!

How utterly bizarre. In Australia the police set up road blocks and direct traffic through pinch points if there are too many closures. It's often busy but never impassable?

One day out of your lives, just one day..maybe just join in next time? Participate or cheer those feckless cyclists on. What a miserable attitude - I do exempt the emergency and carer considerations obviously, but honestly, without your car for just 7 hours out of a whole year?

@KnifeAngel it sounds to me as if there were problems with the organisation of this particular ride. That is a reason to organise it better, not to ban it entirely. I've also known people swear blind they know nothing of an event when actually they've been very well publicised.

It was a 100 mile ride. To give you an idea of speeds, the average on the Tour de France is around 25mph. Very few cyclists can do 40mph unless they're going downhill. Looking at the Velo Birmingham results the faster riders were doing it in about 5hrs, giving you an average of 20mph. If any of them were sustaining speeds of 40mph then British Cycling will be tracking them down now. The current 1 hour record, considered one of the most prestigious in cycling, is a shade over 33 miles for men. That is what the best of the best manage. No offence to Velo competitors, but they aren't Wiggins. I suggest you check your facts.

As for struggling to get across a road, yes it's shit. Welcome to the world of every single pedestrian ever but generally the problem is cars. Rather than berate a road closed to motor traffic for one day, why not consider the wider issues. We are very dependent on a form of transport that makes our roads hellish and dangerous for anyone not in a car.

in the real world, outside of your smug London centric bubble, people don’t have the option of the tube, and need to drive places

This, exactly. My only public transport option where we live is a bus and, oh yeah, they use the same roads as a car.

We got the first leaflet through the door about the Velo at about Christmas and it’s been well publicised. There was advice at that point for anyone with caring needs etc.

There was no info on our leaflet, just advising carers to plan around road closures...also, as I said earlier there wasn't anything on how to access the info in any other languages or help for people with any additional needs.

What a miserable attitude - I do exempt the emergency and carer considerations obviously, but honestly, without your car for just 7 hours out of a whole year?

You do realise just how many people have caring responsibilities don't you!? It's not just professional carers. It's also people who visit elderly parents or family being completely cut off.
What do you class an emergency? We know an ambulance isn't necessary for everything, what if you are in labour, or you feel the need to take your child to hospital but you literally can't get there? It's a recipe for disaster.
What about people's need to get to work, does that not matter? I was completely cut off from my work place.
These are public roads, I completely object to them being closed for a whole day.

As for struggling to get across a road, yes it's shit. Welcome to the world of every single pedestrian ever but generally the problem is cars.

Yeah, I completely agree, I bloody hate cars too but that's why we have these great things called traffic lights!

The cyclists are not the problem poor planning by the organisation running the event would be the problem.

this ^ from @onlyk

The Tour de France is famous for its organisation. We were genuinely stunned by how quickly the necessary barriers are put up and then removed again. It requires massive organisation especially in the alpine areas where 'driving round the other way ' would involve covering a very considerable distance.

The Velo has a terrible reputation locally. Last year it was on the west of the West Midlands and they pissed so many people off they had to move it eastwards. It is very badly communicated and typical at a local level of Birmingham rail roaring all other local authorities. That poor horse it is inhumane.

Op totally with you. I love one road off the route. We had one leaflet pushed through the door several months ago amongst a load of junk mail and I happened to see a Facebook post that someone unconnected to the race had posted. No road signage beforehand (although the road closed signs were still up yesterday!)

Roads that were supposed to be open we’re closed and roads closed earlier than expected. The only way round the blockades were tens of miles out the way via the motorway. Some areas were completely cut off, no diversion signage, unhelpful stewards. The route should not have gone through densely populated areas.

Like you say careers couldn’t get through to vulnerable people. People need to get places, some people have mobility issues and couldn’t get to their car if they had parked. Away from the route, what about people with lots of luggage. Car crime is off the scale round here and people don’t want their cars parked a long distance from their houses.

It was poorly planned, poorly thought out and no consideration given to locals all so people could do their hobby.

If people want to raise money for charity do it in a way that doesn’t prevent care getting to elderly, that doesn’t trap people in their homes, that doesn’t cause animals to die.

I really hope it doesn’t go ahead next year, I will be campaigning for this entirely unsuitable event not to go ahead

People who say just walk are not really getting it.

We had the tour of Britain last year. Small village along one main road. If you close the road there is no way out. No railway. Yes you could walk - would have to be cross country along footpaths and styles though for 5 miles to the nearest other village and 7 to a town. To park the car on the nearest “side road” is a mile at least and no pavements.

Tour of Britain is a professional race so Rolling road block for an hour or so so not a massive problem, but I was coming home from a night shift (usually use bus but had to drive as buses all cancelled for the day) and I had to wait for two hours to get home to bed before getting up to go back in the next night

The organisers and council should, if they are at all aware, now become very cautious - if a diabetic older person or someone else needing very regular care could not get meals or medications for a whole day they could die. How would the organisers look (and feel) then, and where would their reputation and "high profile" be? Will that have to happen, or will the horse and foal death be enough?
Simply assuming that everyone's OK to walk on a Sunday - fine for many but with thousands of people affected, there are going to be those who can't. I hope the horse owners sue, and win, and that it protects not only animals but people, for next time.
Also - it doesn't sit right that the public bears the cost but the proceeds are private. The company should at least be funding delivery of the (more expensive, time-consuming) care they are displacing, along with compensating people who cannot get to their jobs and so lose pay - or lose their job! - or who have animals needing care, etc.

Just walk doesn’t work for us either.
Carers would have been unable to get to the elderly and disabled.
The local village shop which survives on a shoestring would have been closed or empty.
Working parents wouldn’t have been able to get out to do their weekend shop.
Other less intrusive visitors to our part of the national park were deterred. The ramblers, the art clubs, the DofE, the family cyclists, the riders. None could visit except the selfish and entitled Lycra brigade.
There is no benefit at all to the local population from having these big road races on our tiny country lanes.

Apparently no means of communication between stewards - that sounds pretty poor management.

www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/mare-foal-die-vet-held-cycle-race-steward-687110

Blatantly there has been a lot of very poor management by whoever organises these races and I hope all these concerns were passed on at the time. The Tour shows that a street race can be well organised so clearly lessons can and need to be learned from our Gallic cousins.

Why anyone would actually be stupid enough to blame on this on the cyclists I don’t know, but there you go.

It could definitely be organised better. My city's marathon comes past my house every year and it's organised in a way that if the stewards will communicate with each other and tell residents when there is a safe gap in the runners that will let us come on or off our drives. It also only uses one side of most streets so if I did think I wanted to drive somewhere I could park across the street. Luckily for me I'm on a very early section of the route and even the slowest runners have gone past by a little after 10am so for us it's a fun event where I set up breakfast in the porch and DS goes down to the gate to cheer them on.

They do this once a year in London/Surrey but it is pretty well organised and we can still get around on trains/tubes. They do cut off a London bridge which causes mayhem but the main thoroughfare routes are open. They are also super quick to open everything once the bikes have gone through.

It sounds as though this type of race shouldn't be in a non urban setting where communities are reliant on their cars and main routes are closed off effectively cutting off whole communities.

Why anyone would actually be stupid enough to blame on this on the cyclists I don’t know, but there you go.

I think the issue is that that particular kind of lycra clad cyclist are often (not all, of cause) a bloody menace anyway, expecting everyone to jump out of the way of their very important hobby so closing roads is a step too far. Anyway, the issues with the velo were well publicised last year and I can't imagine all of the cyclists were unaware. I, for one, would not be interested in taking part in an event that had caused such misery to local people and I'm amazed that so many competitors were either not aware or interested or didn't care about that.

@Belenus our section is on a big downhill incline. It is a major road which normally has crossings. I can assure you they were going very very fast. The stewards could not have given less care to anyone trying to cross. Our whole area was cut in half. It's fine saying walk but if you cannot access the area you need to get to then that is not acceptable in any way shape or form. We are able bodied and found it frightening. I dread to think how a person in a wheelchair or an old person with a stick would manage.

I go on social media every day. There has been nothing until a week ago. The riders paid a minimum of £80 to ride. The organisers seem to have taken this and ran with it. The cones, signs and litter are still outside this morning.

I have no problem about cycling I have family members involved in it. They however go to properly organised events on tracks.

I found out last night my elderly neighbour had no carers for the day. The care agency were not notified in advance. The Velo organisers seem to be lying through their teeth. They did not notify me, the care agencies or the vetinary surgery's.

i also think many people have an issue at being trapped in their own houses so Sebastian cos company can make a shit load of cash. If every penny the velo made was given to local charities I’d have less of an issue. An area encompassing a large airport, the Nec, getting concert arena, Stratford, near Warwick, Cadbury world etc doesn’t generally need its hotels filling or profile raising. I challenge the “organisers” of this shit to donate every single entrance fee to help the aged, local animal sanctuaries and mind.

I've never heard of this event until the thread this week by the London based woman whose husband was pissing off for the weekend to indulge his hobby.

So is it a money making venture rather than for charity?

Yup, makes money for the organisers, it’s not a charity.

They are also deleting all comments on social media that are critical.