Pirates on the Mancunian Way

Today was the Great Manchester Cycle event in which lots of people paid money to ride against the clock whilst conforming to a set of strict rules. Not my idea of a fun day out, and anyway, when I asked I was told that my 4-wheeler was banned from the ride, so that put paid to any idea of taking the sound system. Not that I own a qualifying hard hat either.

Despite the monotony of cyclists dressed up as mobile advertising hoardings, a few participants did stand out from the crowd. I spotted a couple of three-wheelers, one recumbent in fetching pink sporting the skull and crossbones.



The other a rather nice green handcycle.



In the two-wheeled class was this machine, where the rider can't sit down.



No chance of saddle sores there!



And these two gents riding these lovely scaled down machines who gave a shout and a wave as they rode past.



And I spotted one, just one, participant in the ride who managed to buck the trend of monotonous headgear.




For the rest of us the opportunity to ride the Mancunian way was too much of an opportunity to let pass and the marshals didn't seem to object to the presence of non-participants on the route.



After all, it was pretty easy to spot the riders with bare heads, no numbers and in most cases a more leisurely approach to cycling.





Though one thing that struck me was how much of the time the closed off roads were empty, it seemed such a waste of a good road closure. Also, as the video below shows, there were, unfortunately, rather a lot of motorbikes on the route too.



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A Grim North was also in the area...