Tuesday 29th August 2006 - Blackpool "Ride the Lights"

6 Intrepid riders made it to Blackpool on this late summer August evening to celebrate the Tour of Britain and the fact that the Blackpool promenade was to be closed to motorised vehicles between 8-10pm and the lights would be switched on early. We parked up near the south pier area (be aware of the parking attendant they were out in force) and got the bikes ready and decided to layer up due to the chilly wind off the coast. Jim hardly remembered how to ride a bike and Charlie dressed up like a Christmas tree.
So the first stop was a chip shop for a sit down fish and chip supper, a bit early for a RADS ride but it was a bit windy. After this we raced off down the road for 300 yards to the promenade, where we met the closed road signs and turned left to join the masses of leisure cycles. We had to adjust our normal style of riding to cope with the flat terrain and lots of folks on bikes, it was a sight to behold.
There were police bikes patrolling up and down and each road intersection was closed to cars, we made it safely down to the southern turn-a-round point and then found that we turned into a head wind, great resistance training, but Jims legs were not responding to his brain signals (nothing new there then, I hear you say... just kidding!!) so we were in for a battle against the wind as well as negotiating around all the other cyclists, kids on trikes, tow along bikes and all sorts. We even heard on the tanoy radio that a certain fast food joint were giving out free burgers to cyclists, but we never managed to check this out.
Once past the tower and the north pier we soon made it to the northern turning point, which was supposed to give a ride of about 4 miles, on the return journey there was less traffic (less children) and we were on the look out for Tour vehicles staying at the hotels, we found a load of team cars and some mechanics out cleaning bikes at 9.30pm, fair play. We also had to find a late night shop selling a stick of rock for Charlies sweet tooth! Then we had to head back and find where we parked the car! All in all a sucessfull nite and no rain.