The London Marathon is one of the world's biggest city marathon events. I thought, as they're going to close all the streets anyway, why not have a bicycle race over the course before the main running race. It would be great fun to be able to ride at high speed through London without traffic or traffic lights and the whole thing could be over in an hour or two.-- hippo, Feb 15 2004 London Marathon http://www.london-m...n.co.uk/index.shtml [hippo, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Not exactly a new idea, is it? http://news.bbc.co....cycling/3104670.stm [DrCurry, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Cycling 26 miles is pretty darn ho hum. Pulling (pushing?) a wheelchair or handcycle that far is something else. http://www.ingnycma...ults/ma3/ma3wch.htm [DrCurry, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] I would prefer to see the London Marathon Bicycle Race begin a few minutes behind the foot race, in a Pamplona running of the bulls style.-- Laughs Last, Feb 15 2004 Another excuse to play the Queen song.-- waugsqueke, Feb 15 2004 Yay! But can we customise our bikes wacky-racer style? Cheating should be activly encouraged. I'm going to talk to [bris] about the possibility of a hulla-bike-baloon.-- silverstormer, Feb 15 2004 What's so half-baked about that? How about a Segway rally, or a one-legged blade runner marathon? In New York, we send out the physically challenged ahead of the crowds, on crutches, in wheelchairs and on handcycles.
26 miles is a trivial distance for a bike race. Putting cyclists on the marathon course would diminish the efforts of those for whom 26 miles is a real stretch. And finally, bike races are Widely Baked, even on the busy streets of London.
The NYC marathon uses cyclists to accompany the runners, especially the physically challenged, so I'm going to guess that if you really want to cycle the marathon course, you can do that thing. Otherwise, this idea is unworthy of you.-- DrCurry, Feb 15 2004 Yes, as you well know the London marathon has all that too, but not a bicycle race.I didn't see the relevance of the BBC link - the London marathon isn't the Tour de France.-- hippo, Feb 15 2004 ...or dead people from the extreme heat...-- silverstormer, Feb 15 2004 You could run bike versions in tandem with things like fell-running, which might be fairer. Or runners' versions of downhill or slalom ski courses. Stock-cars on a specially-widened luge track.-- badgers, Feb 15 2004 pogo sticks are much neglected...
badgers <smirk>-- po, Feb 15 2004 [badgers] near Hey-on-Wye in Wales they have a Man v Horse v Mountain Bike Race every year. Someone on foot usually wins but it's pretty close.-- oneoffdave, Feb 16 2004 And the horses just wander all over the place.-- oneoffdave, Feb 16 2004 the man is pretty suspect too.-- po, Feb 16 2004 you know him then po?-- oneoffdave, Feb 16 2004 [scout] Interesting... The London Marathon Pub Crawl would be a challenging race. I'd bet there are a fair number of pubs on the London Marathon route.-- hippo, Feb 16 2004 of the London Slow Bicycle Race. Last one to finish without putting their foot down wins.-- oneoffdave, Feb 16 2004 Space hopper racing. That's what you want, not boring old bikes...unless they're bikes with wobbly front wheels.-- DrBob, Feb 17 2004 Followed by a sack race.-- skinflaps, Feb 17 2004 random, halfbakery