Olympic road race: spectacle or disaster?

The peloton flashes past Buckingham Palace.

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Grand Tour vets shocked by number of spectators

The popularity of cycling in Great Britain has rocketed since its near sweep of the 2008 Olympic track cycling, the many stage wins by Mark Cavendish and now the overall Tour de France victory of Bradley Wiggins. Yet the crush of fans who lined the course from London and the Box Hill circuit in the 2012 Olympic Games road race in London proved to be so enormous and unmanageable that it surprised and frightened even the most hardened Tour veterans.

Although the peloton only suffered a few crashes, one involving a photographer who was in the road and the one of Fabian Cancellara which was pilot error in a turn, there were more dangers than what were apparent to the audience following on television.

Australia’s Michael Rogers felt the crowds should have been controlled better. “No one expected that amount of people on the roadside. There were people in the road taking photos. It should have been marshalled a lot better. On the positive side I’ve never seen so many people at a bike race so that’s the way it is.”

Team USA’s Chris Horner highlighted the fact that in the UK, drivers use the left side of the road instead of the right meant that directors who are accustomed to the follow caravan in the rest of Europe suddenly had to adjust to the reverse side for the driver, the opposite side of the road and the rules on which side of the cars riders can be assisted on. It caused plenty of chaos unseen by the television cameras.

“I almost died five times,” Horner said after suffering several mechanicals during the race and having to drop back to the

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