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Click here to return to the UK page THE LONDON RIDE PAGES - 2005 Ride Report HOME - ROUTE - EVENTS - SUPPORTERS/LINKS
THE LONDON RIDE ON 11 JUNE 2005
The World Naked Bike Ride in London (UK) was a tremendous success! It was an important event in London Sustainability Weeks (LSW), and national Bike Week. The police agreed to it, and even persuaded the council to allow the assembly at Wellington Arch. The public was very supportive as we rode past them, some grasped what we were protesting about, some were just delighted to witness such an astonishing sight, and some were thrilled to see our courage in expressing opposition to oil dependency. We passed out beautiful leaflets with an image of Five Lady Cyclers donated by Maggie Lanoue (www.albiondesign.com and www.michiganprints.com) - click here to view the leaflet. The ride participants were from all sorts of backgrounds. Many participants said they enjoyed the protest, and that it was their first time protesting in the nude (for many it was their first time being nude outdoors). The only unfortunate incident was when a driver of a very expensive car became frustrated with the protest and agressed one of the cyclists - crushing the back wheel of his bike in the process. Fortunately the cyclist was unharmed and the bike frame was ok. The driver then drove off straight away while the cyclist phoned the police. Police are now looking for the driver because crushing bicycles and driving off is neither civil conduct, nor legal. The media coverage of the naked bike ride was extraordinary. We made the cover of the Observer, and were featured in 6 of the newspapers on Sunday 12 June. We appeared on numerous TV news programmes, and had countless radio interviews. Every report or photo noted that the ride was a protest against oil dependency (even the Sunday Sport and News of the World!) The numbers alone indicate the ride's huge success. In 2004 the official count at the end of the ride was 58 (about a dozen people joined us on the way, so we probably started with around 45). In 2005, the official count was 212 at the start and 250 at the finish (with another independent counter confirming the LSW result). This means that we had more than 4 times the number of event participants in 2005 as we had in 2004. If we continue at this rate, we'll have the entire country participating by the end of the decade! To see some photos of the ride, visit our photo page for 2005. A photography
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