A few weeks ago (National Cycle Week, as it happens) I picked up a leaflet about Sky's forthcoming festival in Manchester, called Sky Festival. Without giving them /too/ much advertising(!), one of the things they'd organised was a "Tour de Manchester" - the blurb said this:
"For the first time British Eurosport will be hosting the 'Tour de Manchester' to showcase its commitment to bringing you the best in cycling. Inspired by the Tour de France, the ride will take you along a fantastic 12 mile route, weaving through scenic country side and famous city centre landmarks. This event is suitable for all abilities."
So, since it said 'for all abilities' and it seemed like a good idea at the time, I signed up for it; I've never cycled with more than 3 people together so I figured it'd be a good experience to be doing a mass ride with 749 other people.
Fast forward to a rainy early Sunday morning somewhere in East Manchester; drizzle surrounded the Velodrome and Sean and I wondered what we were doing. It all seemed such a nice idea when I signed up in the sunny summer of a few weeks ago. A registration time of 8am seemed a bit keen for a 9am start - and since registering simply involved exchanging our details for a number and a bottle of water, we then promptly had an hour to kill before we started. The nice people from Evans Cycles were on hand to service our bikes, pumping up my tyres and adjusting my (stretched) rear gear cable such that it wouldn't go into top gear easily (hmm). (Fortunately it got better after a few miles...). Oh, and amusingly, they also condemned Sean's bike... with good reason, really!
At 9am they started sending us off in batches of 20 or so so that we didn't clog up the canal towpath too much; we were started by someone in a UK cycling team outfit, so I presume he was famous, but we didn't have a clue (nor really care much). At this point it became clear that there weren't 750 of us... there were only about 100... Still. The first batch of lycra-clad cyclists went off at 9 - the rest of us were a bit more of a motley crew so I think the first lot were just those who were keen. (That said, I'm glad I had my shorts on!)
We were off in the second batch of people. The route took us through the ASDA carpark to the Ashton canal, up towards Openshaw, then round the Fallowfield Loop line through Levenshulme, Longsight and Fallowfield, turning up towards Alexandra Park, then on up past ASDA Hulme, through the city centre(ish) - past Oxford Road station, up Whitworth street, and out the other side of the city, crossing through Ancoats, back to the Ashton canal and up to the stadium again. The map (pedometer site above) is roughly right.
It's worth saying that the signs and marshalling was very good - there were lots of people on hand at each junction that might even have been vaguely ambiguous and most of them seemed friendly and encouraging (although it has to be said that one of them sent Sean into oncoming traffic!). Fruit and water was available and at the end of the ride we all got a cheap Eurosport plastic water bottle (yay). Not bad for a freebie. Plus there was apparently a prize draw with three prizes for all finishers; since there were two of us and only a hundred or so entrants I reckon we're in with a good chance of winning something!
From a personal point of view, the major achievement of the day (aside from the fact that it was an early-ish morning ride!) was that I did it all in one go! Yes, that's right - I didn't stop, apart from a couple of pauses at traffic lights, and did all 13 miles of it in one cycle. This was more by mistake as anything else; the first few miles were fine to keep going, then when we were on the Fallowfield Loop it was a slight downhill/downward incline. However, when we got to the just-over-halfway-point in Alexandra Park, I misheard the guy at the water stop and I thought he'd said that they were fixing bikes at that point and that water was further on. Turns out that wasn't actually what he'd said! By the time we'd got to the ASDA Hulme (it did feel that we were doing a tour of ASDAs at one point) I just figured I'd keep on going and see how I got on.
When we got to the last mile or so I knew I'd be able to finish it without stopping, even if it meant slowing down - although then of course we were faced with a few more locks on the Ashton canal; going uphill on the slippery cobbles at each lock wasn't the easiest thing to do but hey, I managed them, even if they were a bit energy sapping. When we got to the Velodrome I was stunned that I'd done it continuously. We'd stayed roughly in the same place within the group, too - a couple of people had overtaken us, but we certainly didn't disgrace ourselves - then again, it wasn't a race, but it was nice to keep up with people. I had an OK average of nearly 11mph too.
All in all, it was a good morning - although it was very weird to be back at the Velodrome by 10:15am having finished and then not having anything else to do. We spent a few minutes milling around, gave some feedback to the organisers, and got roped into reconstructing a triumphant finish for the camera; also, me being me, I went to examine the Media van which had a large Barco LED outdoor screen installed in it (and got chatting with the operator who showed us round the back). We then got bored and went to ASDA which, rather oddly, had people queueing to enter at 11am! It was really bizarre to see the number of people there at that time in the morning.
I'd be up for something similar I think - it was my first experience of a 'mass' ride and I think with more people and better weather it would be good fun. Oh, and I have no intention of doing it non-stop again - I was /really/ weary for the rest of the day!