Viewing the Olympic RR - Box Hill

AirTime

sorry to everyone who didn't get tickets, it really is a major disappointment, and even though i got tickets its left a feeling of guilt as not only many people here didn't get tickets but also members of my close family that wanted to come with me ;-(

i've got 3 adults 1 senior but would like to give my dad's ticket to my sister. i wonder whether i could 'upgrade' his ticket to a full adults and pay the difference...?

Bunglehead1977

Looks like the system failed for all first time around.

Like the rest of you I logged on and got 2 tickets reserved within 3mins then went to pay and was told I had none reserved. Tried a second time and 20mins later managed to purchase 2 tickets on for Donkey Green :P .

Now who do I take along, wife or son?

rick_chasey

Rick Chasey wrote:

Got 2 of the zig zag (£10er) tickets.

F*ck, is there no big screen for the donkey green tickets?

Beatmaker

Got kicked out at reservation screen three times for mens road race and decided to try my luck with the womens, which I got first time. Going with my missus and three year old daughter who has started taking a real interest in bikes, so hopefully she will be inspired to be the next Marianne Vos!

Beatmaker

Rick Chasey wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Got 2 of the zig zag (£10er) tickets.

F*ck, is there no big screen for the donkey green tickets?

Nope :?

rich_e

E-mail I got yesterday says:

"Spectators at Box Hill will have the choice of two viewing areas (Donkey Green and Dormouse Drive). At Donkey Green you will be able to see the race from three zones, and there will also be a big screen and commentary so you can enjoy the rest of the action. At Dormouse Drive there will be two viewing zones, also with commentary."

So I believe Donkey Green does has a big screen, which would also be why the ticket is £5 more expensive.

The ticket descriptions aren't very clear of this, but in the Dormouse Drive one it only talks about a PA system.

Bunglehead1977

The map on the link early shows a big screen at Donkey Green.

TMR

I went with my family and a cycling friend and his family and watched the Olympic Road Test some months ago now. There's a petrol station on the route on a roundabout and we stood there. We had a great view of the riders. Should be free as well.

Abdoujaparov

Yep, Donkey Green has a screen and Dormouse doesn't. I had a conference call I couldn't get out of that finished about 11.10 so went straight for the Dormouse Drive tickets and got four for me and my mates. Also booked a table a few weeks ago at the Stepping Stones pub near Box Hill and West Humble station (5-10 mins walk from the Dormouse Drive bit) which is showing the cycling so we can watch the finish.

Think they still have some tables left so get in quick if you want to book one.

Sorry to all those who didn't get tickets - wish there were far more available.

rich_e

There might still be some available for the women's race.

I'm undecided on whether to go for one though. They only do two laps compared to the men, so you don't get quite the same benefit of having the Box Hill spot. I'd need to get down to Surrey, and while I saw that plenty of people cycled to it for the test event, I'd imagine there may be restrictions for the Olympics, plus with so many people, it might be hard to find a spot to lock your bike up safely.

I watched the test event last year on the Mall and it was great. With the coverage, I reckon I should be able to watch or listen to it on my phone, so I'm thinking maybe it makes more sense to just do that instead. Possibly head somewhere with a slight hill so that they don't come past quite so quickly.

weapons

I had the same problem, no luck despite getting through to payment screen four times (the 1st time at around 11:01am). Thinking I was successful at the first attempt, I told my colleague about it. He hadn't even signed up to a 2012 ticket account, so decided to do so, varified his email etc etc and then went on to buy tickets well after 11am. He was successful first time, whilst I infuriatingly had been thrown out the system four times!

The stress of this whole ticketing affair has taken years off my life...

rick_chasey

Beatmaker wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Got 2 of the zig zag (£10er) tickets.

F*ck, is there no big screen for the donkey green tickets?

Nope :?

Massive error.

humpty68

Rang Ticketmaster just to voice my anger to be blatantly misled given the evidence on here. That is I was told all tickets sold out in the first two minutes due to very high demand - the reason some people managed to get tickets 15 - 20 minutes after a good few of us had given in was due to Visa Verification failures and tickets being thrown back into the pot. This may be the case, if I give them the benefit, but this was seemingly all due to an iffy payment stage for those that got into the payment process straight the way. Like the Tetleys ......... and I suppose there is still a lot of places to view the race from decent free vantage points.

TheBigBean

Mr Chasey - Does this mean you are no longer organising the BR London meet-in-the-pub for the race?

rick_chasey

TheBigBean wrote:

Mr Chasey - Does this mean you are no longer organising the BR London meet-in-the-pub for the race?

Probably. We'll see. I'm still happy to point you guys in the right direction.

I'm regretting getting them now TBH. Got all carried away with it. No big screen, get there for 10:30 and no doubt it'll be p!ssing with rain.

Pross

Pah, didn't take much for you to ditch all us provincial types when you got the opportunity of the big time. Probably sipping champagne and Pimms with the rest of the city types who pay to watch road cycling rather than a few Leffes with the genuine fans on the roadside

rick_chasey

Pross wrote:

Pah, didn't take much for you to ditch all us provincial types when you got the opportunity of the big time. Probably sipping champagne and Pimms with the rest of the city types who pay to watch road cycling rather than a few Leffes with the genuine fans on the roadside

Yeah sorry. Feel a bit of a d!ck about that.

:roll: :oops:

By the way, The Temperance in Fulham, literally on the bend as they turn onto/off Putney bridge is showing all the olympics and is on the route. Lots of novelty beer on offer and food too.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=The+Tem ... m&t=m&z=16

But yeah. No TV screen @ some of box hill? I'm a bit gutted about that. Not so sure if it was a good idea now!

Le Commentateur

Rick Chasey wrote:

TheBigBean wrote:

Mr Chasey - Does this mean you are no longer organising the BR London meet-in-the-pub for the race?

Probably. We'll see. I'm still happy to point you guys in the right direction.

I'm regretting getting them now TBH. Got all carried away with it. No big screen, get there for 10:30 and no doubt it'll be p!ssing with rain.

Or just pissing behind a tree.

usedtobefast

Rang Ticketmaster just to voice my anger to be blatantly misled given the evidence on here. That is I was told all tickets sold out in the first two minutes due to very high demand - the reason some people managed to get tickets 15 - 20 minutes after a good few of us had given in was due to Visa Verification failures and tickets being thrown back into the pot

According to an article on BBC News

A London 2012 spokesperson said: "The sheer volume of demand meant that we managed transactions slowly in the first 20 minutes. However transactions now flowing through in their thousands."

Anonymous

Rich_E wrote:

I'd need to get down to Surrey, and while I saw that plenty of people cycled to it for the test event, I'd imagine there may be restrictions for the Olympics, plus with so many people, it might be hard to find a spot to lock your bike up safely.

I've just got the MTBs, and while there are some cracking trails off the back of Box that I could take in to get there, I'm not letting either bike out of my sight/grip given their value, locked up or not.

Suppose I could go all roadie, get a cheap road bike to get there. Is a road race after all :P.

Getting there to park will be near impossible. Maybe very early before road closures and get into Dorking somewhere and walk up from there. Problem I'd have to cross the route in the car somewhere. Probably has to be the train.

Oh, and apologies, looks like I must have grabbed one that went into the pot after payment failures

bigmat

Rick Chasey wrote:

Pross wrote:

Pah, didn't take much for you to ditch all us provincial types when you got the opportunity of the big time. Probably sipping champagne and Pimms with the rest of the city types who pay to watch road cycling rather than a few Leffes with the genuine fans on the roadside

Yeah sorry. Feel a bit of a d!ck about that.

:roll: :oops:

By the way, The Temperance in Fulham, literally on the bend as they turn onto/off Putney bridge is showing all the olympics and is on the route. Lots of novelty beer on offer and food too.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=The+Tem ... m&t=m&z=16

But yeah. No TV screen @ some of box hill? I'm a bit gutted about that. Not so sure if it was a good idea now!

I'm not too worried about the lack of a big screen. We should see all the real action as it happens, once they go past for the last time we should have time to head to a nearby pub / big screen in time for the finish. They might even open up the top area with the big screen as once the race has passed, either they'll open up the roads or there'll be closed roads with nobody using them (of course, that would make far too much sense - we'll probably be penned in until the race has finished for no good reason...)

sherer

got tickets for Donkey Green, not even sure where that is on the hill !

No idea how i'm going to get there to be honest and even worse how are we going to stay stocked with cold beer all day

rich_e

deadkenny wrote:

Rich_E wrote:

I'd need to get down to Surrey, and while I saw that plenty of people cycled to it for the test event, I'd imagine there may be restrictions for the Olympics, plus with so many people, it might be hard to find a spot to lock your bike up safely.

I've just got the MTBs, and while there are some cracking trails off the back of Box that I could take in to get there, I'm not letting either bike out of my sight/grip given their value, locked up or not.

Suppose I could go all roadie, get a cheap road bike to get there. Is a road race after all :P.

Getting there to park will be near impossible. Maybe very early before road closures and get into Dorking somewhere and walk up from there. Problem I'd have to cross the route in the car somewhere. Probably has to be the train.

Oh, and apologies, looks like I must have grabbed one that went into the pot after payment failures

That was pretty much my thoughts too.
The Road Races are the events which are going to cause the most disruption to traffic during the whole Olympics. I remember last year that many people were up in arms about having been delayed driving, despite it being a Sunday. With how much doom-mongering the Olympics is going to cause in disruption, it's not going to be a good day to drive, or take public transport to get there.

I live in North London and to drive I'd imagine I'll have to go all the way around the M25, plus as you say, parking won't be easy.

As I said with bikes, the problem is that the only place you are really likely to be able to lock them is to the barriers. Trouble with that is that everyone is crammed up against the barriers. I saw people who had done so at the test event and you obviously don't want a nice bike being damaged by so many people being up against it. Like I said, I could also just see some jobsworth security person telling you that you aren't allowed bikes in the viewing areas, especially when there is so little information available at what you can and can't do.

I was so close to pushing the button on buying tickets, but I'm glad I thought it through first.

Monty Dog

My missus was logged-on at 1100, had tickets in the basket and yet was rejected at the payment stage - tried repeatedly until the SOLD OUT flag went up - pi$$ed off!
Might be a blessing though as I'm performing in the Opening Ceremony which doesn't finish until midnight and there's gonna be helluva party after, so I'm probably going to be in no fit state to make my way to Dorking by lunchtime.

Moomaloid

Couldn't get any. Let you get to the payment stage and then tells you there isn't any!

richk

Managed to get two for the TT - took two attempts & 40 mins.

owlsfan_72

Can anyone point me in the direction of a map showing the box hill loop? I'm trying to work out a decent vantage point after failing to get tickets. The official maps I've seen so far are a bit vague. Thanks

rick_chasey

How are people getting there? I would cycle but with the gf in tow that's not an option.

TheStone

Monty Dog wrote:

as I'm performing in the Opening Ceremony

Tell us more.

mrushton

i presume the secondary ticket people will have some? Bonkers that you can go and stand in Milan or on top of the Stelvio for free (plus travel costs) to see a GT or on some crazy Belgian road but you struggle to see an event in your own country on a minor climb.