Quote:
Originally Posted by terriuk
is wnbr losing its impact, i wonder? It all seemed rather low key, sedate even; I reckoned on maybe 250-ish riders, vast majority male, with little of the buzz that has featured in previous..
No familiar faces seen, and Lucy Muse was at the Bristol ride today, I believe, rather hard to do both!
Noticed more police were visible, though unobtrusive as usual.
Weather was fair, some sun, but a bit cooler as it went on. We were just watching this year, for various reasons- yet to go through pics, though at first look, may need to some editing for brightness / crop the sausage fest out.
When we go to the start, just saw men were getting naked / parading round outside of the corral, but one couple stripping off near the entrance, a few minutes before the off, got quite a bit of attention..
Riders started out through the side fence, which i think caught a lot off guard- usual scrum for pics, as they headed off to bottom lane on the park, then into town..
We caught up on the 2nd leg, when they were coming back along Western Road. All good natured, but far fewer people watching, at the spots we were at.
No takers for a dip in the fountain at Old Steine, that we saw.
One stand out view was 'coffee lady', quite slim with trimmed bush, who walked quite purposefully around at this stage, holding a brew, with no qualms being photographed.
Very tired by this stage, so bugged out for a restaurant. Look forward to seeing what others took / felt about the ride.
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Mods - feel free to move this to general discussion if need be. I agree with terriuk, though - this year's Brighton ride was a real anti-climax. The cool weather is likely to blame for the paltry female turn-out. In fact, the majority of girls who did take part seemed to be from Extinction Rebellion, so its association was a good thing after all (many on Facebook had been wary, to say the least).
But yes, my observations were similar to Terri's. Absolutely nothing going on outside the rider's enclosure at the start, a relatively foreboding police/steward presence, and only two or three fully nude girls as the ride got underway (unthinkable a few years back). The beach portion was easily the highlight, with quite a few stripping off completely; and this just about justified a long, long day with the usual hours of waiting around. I'd say today's ride was a smidge better than the 2013 Brighton ride, but weaker than each of the five that followed.
Personally, I wasn't particularly excited about this year's event, either. Having attended my first WNBR ten years ago, they do now feel rather passé, and to an extent, rather repetitive. When the naked bike rides first started in the UK, they were game-changing, but with so many other nudity-related events popping up in the UK now, there are other, more intriguing options out there if you look closely enough.