One million spectators estimated to have attended men's race
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The peloton flashes past Buckingham Palace.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
David Millar (Great Britain) leads the peloton on Box Hill(Image credit: Tour of Japan)
London Mayor Boris Johnson(Image credit: Daniel Benson)
The peloton winds their way up the Box Hill climb(Image credit: Tour of Japan)
Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome lead the peloton for Great Britain.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The London 2012 Olympics peloton tackles Box Hill.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Mayor of London Boris Johnson was on hand to witness as professional cycling engulfed London this weekend. Johnson attended the men's Olympic road race on Saturday and although Great Britain's road team came up short with Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) taking the gold, the Mayor praised the efforts of the men's team while also predicting that the home nation's cyclists would bounce back. On Sunday Johnson's predictions came true with Lizzie Armistead taking silver in the women's race.
"I thought it was wonderful, brilliant," Johnson told Cyclingnews on Saturday as he witnessed the finish of the men's race on the Mall.
"Team GB are coming back, they're coming back. I thought it was brilliant and we'll see what happens in the days ahead. I thought they did brilliantly, I couldn't go that fast."
While some of the pro peloton criticized the marshalling, or rather the lack of it, on sections of the course Johnson praised the estimated one million spectators who came out the cheer the rider on.
"It was immense. I think it was the biggest sporting event, the crowds were enormous and it shows the growing popularity of cycling."
Johns also attended the Games' opening ceremony on Friday, during which the Queen made a television performance alongside James Bond [Daniel Craig] before appearing to jump out of a helicopter. Johnson was not part of the London opening but did share some of the details of a subsequent chat with the monarch.
"I was blubbering like a baby from the beginning and I thought it was absolutely brilliant and the most stupefying thing I've seen for a very long time. I was still dreaming about it this morning. I think it was wonderful, and what was so good was that it was genuinely us. It was true. It was about Britain and it wasn't some kind of synthesised Brito-pap stuff."
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"As an actress, the Queen was keen to know how her performance was received. Basically, I hope I wasn't being overly obsequious but I told her it was very funny and she was reassured by that. I think everyone thought that it was global hit."
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
