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Video - Race Across London

Thank you Alan . . .

I enjoyed that. I used to live in Richmond just down the road from Kew where the race starts and regularly ran along the riverside through London. That brought back many happy memories :)

I was very surprised to discover Mr Hammond is a cyclist and a rather good one too. What does the lady say to Hammond when she overtakes at the traffic lights towards the end of Part 1? Something about his being slow because he has bandy legs? A little strange for cyclists to throw insults at each other - unless Hammond was riding carelessly.

Cheers,

Philip
 
One more from London...

This one however, is slightly more irresponsible:rolleyes:
A group of bike-messengers rolling through London traffic at high speed!
http://www.digave.com/videos/london06-digave_com.mpg

Also, go to the guy's main page, and check out "New York", "San Fransisco", "New Mexico (on a freeway!)" etc...
 
Dunno about irresponsible, think suicidal is a better word.

Interesting seeing one of those guys riding the fixie though, he has some mighty fine bike control skills!
 
That was fun to watch--surprised they let boats go that fast right in the middle of London! I was actually just thinking a couple of months ago how great it would be to do something in similar in Tokyo, although of course the car would stand even less chance here, I bet.

They seemed keen to depict the cycle option as stressful and hard work, compared to the luxury of going by car, but for a lot of people I bet the experience is quite the opposite.
 
Real life Tokyo version!

Yesterday (Sunday), I had to help a friend with some moving - Clothes, shoes, furniture etc (>Edogawakikkoman: That's why I had to cancel the Seo Festival race. Sorry!).

I was in Toritsu-daigaku (Southwest Tokyo) on my bike early to help load the van; a Toyota Liteace.
The move was to Shibamata (Northeast Tokyo) 28km away, where I had to help unload the same van.

That it was a race between bike & car had already been decided, but here's how it went...

We both left Toritsu-daigaku at 9:32. I immediately headed straight down Meguro-dori towards Kannana-dori, and then onto Rte.1.
I beat the van to Kannana, but got passed on the way to Meguro station, and then it was "cat & mouse" until the traffic got a bit heavier, and I was lucky with a few red lights - The van had to stop.
As I turned onto Rte.1, I felt I had quite a healthy lead until I got caught at a set of red lights myself - from there until past Tokyo Tower, it was "overtake", "be overtaken", "overtake again"... all the way to Tokyo Palace.
That's where I caught my lucky break!
We were both stuck at the lights between Hibiya-koen & the Palace... it was exactly 9:58 (and 50 seconds) and I could still see cars being let through on the main road past the Palace. I thought, "if my friend gets through here, I've lost!"......AND THEN, dead on 10am, the police and those guys in the yellow caps pulled the barriers & 'witches-hats' out to stop all traffic except bicycles and pedestrians.
YES!! My friend had to turn towards Ginza, while I was free to haul arse down the road with no traffic until at least Eitai-dori.
The ride was uneventful from there, but as I turned onto Kuramaebashi-dori, for the home-stretch (about 12km from Akihabara), I noticed the lack of traffic on the road. My confidence wained... I thought for sure a motor-driven-vehicle would definitely win under these (lack of) traffic conditions.
But I kept up the pace.
Once I was past Koiwa station, I turned left towards Shibamata, and if I was going to lose, I could at least cut my losses, so I "stopped at every traffic light - Just like Philip:)" and made it right on 10:37.
Where's the van? I was sure it would be there! Maybe my friend was driving around the block, looking for a parking space... so I waited... and waited...

My friend turned up in the van 12 minutes later, at 10:49.
Apparently, my friend "just wanted to drive around and 'see where Kasai-bashi was'".

Bottom line is though, despite being 'disadvantaged' by the lack of traffic, the bike was still much faster, even from one side of Tokyo to the other.

Total distance: 27.91km
Ave Spd: 27.5km/h
Time: 1hr, 5mins.

T
 
Race across Tokyo . . .

That is great Travis. I figured a bike would be faster to the center of Tokyo, but not across. However, you have proven me wrong. It is faster by bike across Tokyo. Fantastic!

Maybe a TV station would be interested in setting-up a 'race across Tokyo' :no1: Seems like a good item for a game show.

Philip
 
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