I wanted to cycle to box hill or near by, park my bike watch the racing and go home. We are being charged £15 to watch a road cycling race and the chances of getting a ticket are zilch. If you do get a ticket theres going to be nowhere to leave your bike. We should never have to pay, it's just not the done thing. This could set a precedent, how long before the tour starts charging to watch at any of the big climbs. The olympics has turned into a big corporate party and to hell with the real fans .Seb Coe should be ashamed of himself.

That is shitty but I hope you weren't thinking you would just ride over to box hill and get a good place to watch when free. Unless you planned on camping out that is. The price could be worse and of it will allow you a good view it may be worth the price for the sake of not havin to camp out...

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All sporting events need money to exist and the olympics is no different. Professional cycling is there because of sponsorship deals. Sponsorship is only a small part of how the Olympics are financed so gate money is important. You have to pay to see any of the the other Olympic events so why should cycling be different. Charging is right and proper and understandable.

You can actually see certain sections of the Olympic road race for free but that's only because it isn't practical to charge. Charging would cost the organisers more than the gate return.

No this is not ok... how about if they try to charge for Alp D'huez.. Galibier ?

THey have made a real pigs ear of the olympics ticket allocation already this is just insult to injury.
A lot of promises were made. but it's worth remembering a promise is a comfort to a fool.
Shame on us for believing Seb Coe and all the olympic promises...

World champs are free to watch, so are Grand tours... i understand why your pissed.

Yes because World Champs and Grand Tours are principally financed through sponsorship, the Olympics isn't. And as I said why should cycling be free when everything else isn't.

The olympics have massive sponsorship . We were promised that the cycling would be free . They made a big error in the choice of box hill. The olympics are charging huge amounts of money for 99% of the events. Most of the best tickets are going to corporate. We the normal people are left with the bones. The olympics was supposed to be for the people, it has turned into a corporate party. Did you know that at some of the best events ,coporate has nearly 80% of the tickets. It is a disgrace. Cycling has always been a sport for the people, a sport where we can watch our heros for free, It has always been that way. I hope it stays thats way . But promises mean nothing when money can be made.

So other sports in the Olympics should also be free too?
Stepping aside from our personal passions and preferences for cycling for just a moment: an enthusiast of another sport who is unfamiliar with cycling's 'availability of access' may just as well question that if cycling is 'free' than so should their sport of choice.

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Well why not ,Mc Donald's, cadburys. Procter and Gamble , Coke Cola etc etc , theres some big sponsorship going on . We already had enough stadiums to host the games . There was no need for such a huge Investment especially in these bad economic times, It could have truly been the olympics for the people.But there is to much money to be made by a minority of big wigs. Cycling is and always has been free. It is unique ,that is what makes it so special. Lets keep it that way

Konky, cycling should be free because it has always been that way...for the road race. olympics or not..
Track i understand, they spent a lot of money building the Velodrome ( and knocked down the Eastway) but they did not build box hill ..I understand if there are VIP grandstands especially along Pall Mall but not in the middle of nowhere where cyclists go to every other weekend for free ...
Artray is telling you what the general consensus is in the UK.. you can say what you like but people feel ripped off.

something to read..http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/07/london-2012-olympics-five-questions

Sport costs money. Even with ticket sales and sponsorship the Olympics is being subsidised by the tax payer. There is no profit just loss or cost. Seb Coe or in fact any organizer or politician is not on a profit related bonus. The general public may be up in arms over the Olypmpic cost and ticket distribution but they don't understand the dynamics of such an event and lets face it the general public are generally effing thick aren't they? As it is, if you were to attend an Olympic event, the tax payer is contributing to your pleasure, to no benefit for themselves.

In the end it's about balancing the interests of the sport lover and the tax payer (the general public) and also putting on an event that Britain (the nation) can be proud of. You can't please all the people all the time. The organizers and politicians are between a rock and a hard place. Sport lovers are complaining because there aren't infinate tickets available and they are having to pay, and sport disinterested parties don't want to pay for something they are disinterested in.

There are finite tickets available

You can't expect other people to pay 100% for your pleasure.

Corperate involvement is required to get the balance right. Tickets cost enough as it is. It wouldn't be fair for the tax payer to pay even more.

OK?

You are right its not fair for the tax payer to pay even more. In reality the whole vanity project shouldn't have been started in the first place.

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I wouldn't mind paying the 15 quid if the proceeds went on resurfacing Box Hill and the surrounding roads.

I agree with Artray and Konky that sport is just business these days but paying money to stand on the verge of a road with no additional facilities is taking the pi55. I'm going to a freinds place in Hersham to watch them fly past the end of his road, and will watch the rest of it on the TV.

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I'm kind of split on this - I would have loved to watch a local event for free, but overall I'm moderately pleased that the majority of Olympic tickets are going for GBP 500 plus to corporate sponsors, as this is the only way that the poor London taxpayer will avoid having to foot the bill for many years to come.

Secondly, I do think the best place to watch a bike road race is on TV. If you want action you need to go to the track. Now that is a royal cock up. Why couldn't we the event have been at Hearne Hill with massive football sized grandstands so that 30,000 not 3,000 people could watch it?

I personally think the Olympics needs to move from a self aggrandising jamboree for the 'Olympic family' to a self financing commercial venture. That would probably mean cutting costs at the top, reducing participation to cover only the best sportspeople in the world with a realistic chance of winning, cutting out sports where the overheads massively exceed revenues and staging the festival so that the logistics are managed efficiently, i.e. running over 12 weeks, rather than cramming everything into three.

They have resurfaced the fearsome Col de la Boite.

I live half a kilometer from the olympic rowing lake and an zero chance of seeing anything or even getting anywhere near it. Why should the cycling be any different? Box Hill is indeed a public road but the land either side of it is NT and needs to be looked after.

In all honesty I find it hilarious that people are clamouring to watch there. Given that any decent weekend warrior goes up it at around 20kph it's highly likely that the peloton will be in excess of 35kph so it's not like you'll be watching on something like the Zoncolan FFS. Just get a decent vantage point en route outside a nice village pub and enjoy the sight of the race passing by in relative peace.