Europe’s authorities are actually shit scared of any large gathering as they feel there is a potential for trouble. All festivals now have to provide a report to the emergency planning committee of their local police force or Resilence commitee!
there was actually a spate of racing cyclists in Europe being stopped by cops, but they were taking stacks of drugs to win the races (and some of the cocktails were combinations that our local junkies would balk at injecting!)
apparently last year one ridgeway cyclist (one of the mountain bikers) came across a rave, stopped to check it out, was offered (and knowingly accepted) a fat line of K – then after a chat with the ravers carried on on his bike ride (he was in a group).. Fair play to him – I suppose it hurts less when you fall off..
I tend to actually ride on the country roads near the the ridgeway though rather than the ancient road itself, it is too rutted up by SUVs and tractors to be pleasant going (particularly on a touring bike with thinner tyres). I did try the Ridgeway a couple of times, and ended up on my arse in the mud in three separate counties. After that I decided to stick to the normal roads…
still curious about the incident with the bike thief – the cops don’t seem to be able to recover stolen bikes on the street, how come they manage to spot one out in the sticks?
