Today is the London-Surrey Cycle Classic bike race, a test and to prepare for the 2012 London Olympics.
The race, some 250km for the men and 140km for women, runs from The Mall (Buckingham Palace in Central London, out into leafy Surrey a place called Box Hill and back, passing through six London Boroughs, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth, Richmond and were I live Kingston.
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From Kingston the race will pass through many small towns and villages in the County of Surrey.
To facilitate the race, many roads have been closed, and will be for most of the day. The road I live on is a major route, carrying many hundreds of cars and buses per hour, but today there is nothing, save for one or two “official” cars.
Our roads in Kingston upon Thames will be closed between 6am and 1500pm, yet the race will pass we are told at 11:50am. Why is it required to close the road so long, especially if the race is anything like the Tour De France, all the racers pass in one big block, blink and you will miss them?
For anyone who has stayed with me, traffic noise can be a problem, but today, it is so quiet, I can even hear birds singing and pigeons cooing in the distance.
It is like living in the country-side, so I am not complaining, even if I like many people are locked into their home as they cannot leave their premises because the roads are closed and the only way to use their car is barred.