Great Support For The Men’s Olympic Road Race

We were lucky to have two of the London 2012 Olympic events take place in Surrey, and the Men’s Road Race was equally as well supported as the Time Trial. I once again I grabbed my camera, jumped on my bike, this time accompanied by Mrs Doug, and followed the River Wey to Byfleet, where the road race crossed over the M25 (via a bridge.)

Read on to see more photos, and to find out how my wife ended up as “pacesetter” for the Men’s race.

We got there in plenty of time, as did many of the supporters, and there were plenty of Union flags on display. Britain’s Mark Cavendish was favourite to add to the gold medal won by Bradley Wiggins the week before, but sadly it wasn’t to be. The Manx Missile (as he was known) did lavish praise on the tremendous support the riders received from the British public through out the race.

The build up to the peloton arriving involved lots of flag waving, especially at passing motorists on the M25, who would often respond with a toot of their car horns, which provided plenty of opportunities for candid photos of the spectators.

Suddenly the Police escort riders arrived and started clearing the roads, as the Olympic cyclists were about to pass through, The spectators lined the sides of the roads for as far as the eye could see, and for the first time the sound of the crowd no longer drowned out the traffic noise from the motorway, as a hush descended.

Then the sound of applause and cheering could be heard from just over the brow of the hill as the peloton approached, a sound that got louder and louder until all other sounds were drowned out as the riders finally arrived.

Then, like a gust of the wind, they were gone, onward towards the climbs at Box Hill. And that was it. The crowd began to disperse, and as they did I turned to Mrs Doug and said “Hop on your bike, and go and cycle over the bridge and back.”

I then photographed her coming over the top of the bridge along the line that the olympic riders had taken, which allowed me to create this image of her casually “setting the pace” for the Men’s Olympic Road Race:

The lady in the pink is a friend of Mrs Doug who had come along to see the race as well, and she was added from another photo taken just as she saw Mrs Doug. It adds a nice element that even fooled some of the family when we showed it to them!

:D