We have supported this fantastic event for the past 12 years or so and as usual we were involved with the planning and recce of the route. Even more so this year due to the opening 4 days before our event a new by-pass road system west of the city of Preston. We had worked out diversion routes but happily they wasn't required. Several thousand cyclists started the ride from the Media City in Salford in waves from 07.15 using our well signed route and being encouraged by a superb team of static marshals passing the various junctions to keep them on the right track. Bikemarshals provided a team of 10 Safety Motorcycles plus an Opening Car who drove the route just ahead of the first cyclists to ensure the signage was still correct (some people consider its great fun to alter the signs as a sick joke) and to check for last minute 'surprises' on the route. Our colleagues from Community 4 x 4 Rescue also supported the event providing a reparation service for broken down bikes. It was a great event and went very well until late afternoon when to say the heavens opened was an understatement .....it was a massive downpour with sudden gusts of wind which caused flash foods on the road. The Motos and 4 x 4 teams were quickly deployed attending to many requests for assistance from the riders. Fortunately the storm did not last too long and most of the cyclists ended up at the Finish Line on Blackpool Promanade . Because of the pressures of work and the storm, we had no real time to take the usual photograph except for Moto Gary who managed managed to snap his BMW using the Tank displayed on the Leyland by-pass as a suitable background. I have just noticed there is a couple of our cyclists in shot too !
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