Originally Posted by NOS88
I would think with 27000 riders you could pretty much claim any street in London, or any major city for that matter. Mass start rides are an interesting exercise in defensive riding. Last year the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia held it's Sept. Century ride and the start was a zoo with only several hundred riders. I can't imagine the chaos with such a large number.
Many moons ago I did a ride in France with 200 other riders. When we got back to Dover- we were the last ones off the ferry so got a bit annoyed at not being allowed to get off the boat earlier. 200 Riders, when they did get off the boat, brought Dover Harbour to a standstill.
With 27,000 you have a different matter- Yes we did take over the roads, and a lot of roads were close or one way only for all users, but it was not Anarchy. It was idiot riders not realising that the roads were still open to cars and causing problems to all other road users. You imagine being a pedestrian wanting to cross aroad with a continual stream of riders for miles. And unfortunately- impatient car drivers at junctions waiting to get out for 30 minutes. This was the most accident ridden L2B that I have done. I saw 4 serious accidents. Think this was down to excessive speed by riders hitting other riders from behind, as all of them were on fast parts of the route. Unfortunately there were still the car drivers that did not realise that they were amongst cyclists- or not caring about them. It only takes one accident with a car to seriously injure a bike rider.