Surrey Hills Road Race festival

[Justayellowbadge]

Anyone going to this? I'd have expected to see more about it.

http://www.surreyhillsroadracefestival.com/

[Kermit power]

I am if it's not raining.

It has been discussed a couple of times, but in threads relating to the Olympics rather than to the festival itself.

[AyBee]

Quite possibly tying it in with going to watch the road race.

[MadDad]

Yup, riding over with a friend - having a wander around the venue, walking up to Box Hill to watch the race, then back to the festival for a burger and beer - then a gentle ride home (as long as the weather is not too terrible).....

[Gizmoish]

It's been spammed a few times on BikeRadar.

What's not clear is whether you'll actually get a decent view of the race, and whether it's worth going if you don't have a ticket for the hill.

[MadDad]

The festival will have a number of big screens showing the start and race, the race will pass the door of Denbies and then head up to Box Hill.

Although you cannot get onto the hill without a tickect, I understand that it will be possible to walk down the A24 to the B2209 (the road used by the race) at the bottom of the hill and watch the riders pass along that stretch of the road.

The estimate is that it will take 21 mins per lap, so if you wait for them to pass Denbies and then walk along the A24 to the bottom of the hill, you should have the chance of seeing them pass at least 7 or 8 times.

[Kermit power]

Gizmoish said:

It's been spammed a few times on BikeRadar.

What's not clear is whether you'll actually get a decent view of the race, and whether it's worth going if you don't have a ticket for the hill.

You won't have a view of the race from inside the festival, but it's a 5 minute walk back out to the A24 at the bottom of Boxhill when they get near by.

[Justayellowbadge]

What do you think chaps? If Wiggins does the business, and the weather is good, is it going to be stupidly crowded?

[Kermit power]

Justayellowbadge said:

What do you think chaps? If Wiggins does the business, and the weather is good, is it going to be stupidly crowded?

Everywhere on the route is going to be stupidly crowded, but I'm hoping the festival will be a better stupidly crowded place to watch it than most.

[Gizmoish]

Kermit power said:

Justayellowbadge said:

What do you think chaps? If Wiggins does the business, and the weather is good, is it going to be stupidly crowded?

Everywhere on the route is going to be stupidly crowded, but I'm hoping the festival will be a better stupidly crowded place to watch it than most.

But it's only a few stupidly crowded miles from your house. It's the wrong stupidly crowded side of stupidly crowded London for me

[Justayellowbadge]

Roads are going to be closed too, aren't they, so it's shanks', public transport or bike?

[Kermit power]

Justayellowbadge said:

Roads are going to be closed too, aren't they, so it's shanks', public transport or bike?

Indeed, although Denbies is only a 5 minute walk from Dorking station.

[Kermit power]

I popped over there at lunchtime to see what it looked like.

Obviously they're only setting up today, but it looks like there will be quite a lot of stands, plenty of places to get food, local beer & wine, and above all a MASSIVE giant screen.

Apparently they've got capacity for 7,000 people, although they've only got secure cycle parking for 500 bikes. I suspect there may be as many as 6,500 people keeping their bikes with them!

Based on what's there, my thinking is that it will be a great place to be if you're really there for the race. It will be a pretty decent place to be if you're there with someone watching the race and are happy guzzling local booze and relaxing for the day.

If you've got small kids, however, I'm not convinced. They're setting up those bungee trampolines and other stuff, but the board in front of the big paddling pool thing with the normal price papered over with "£4 for 5 minutes" was quite telling! I'm fked if I'm paying £144 an hour for my three kids to splash in a bit of water!!!!

I reckon the atmosphere is going to be great across the whole area though. Coming back past Headley Cricket Club, I was thinking "blimey, there's some exceptionally keen nutters already sat at the side of the road"! Then I realised said nutters were a mate and his wife, who are camping there, so I went back to say hello. Apparently a lot of the national squads have been riding various parts of the loop today, so decent viewing, and your opportunity to say you've overtaken Evans & Goss whilst they were riding for Australia!

[ChrisMCoupe]

Thanks for that. I will definitely be heading over there tomorrow. Still undecided on whether or not to cycle or walk down from the station, I suspect the latter now.

[AyBee]

Thanks for the update Not sure I'd want to let my bike out of my sight anyway - will be riding down there What time are people thinking of arriving?

[MadDad]

Thanks for the update, I was wondering about the 'cash' element to the event seeing as there does not appear to be an entry fee! I guess everything there will cost a small fortune!

I will be riding over with a mate tomorrow, setting off from Bracknell direction at 8-ish, hopefully getting there for about 09.30 - slightly worried that if there is only capacity for 7,000-ish 9.30 might be too late!

Considering there are 15,000 tickets sold for the hill and the gates to the hill open at 08.00 and close at 10.00 I would assume the area is going to be VERY congested!

I will be sticking a set of SPD's on my road bike tonight so I don't have to carry a spare set of shoes!