Sat July 7, 2007. The Tour de France started in London.

London Cycling Campaign organized mass rides to Hyde Park, where members enjoyed a privileged viewing space (roundabout at foot of Park Lane), to watch the Prologue Time Trial.

Camden Cycling Campaign's mass ride started at Swiss Cottage - we registered 85 people from Camden and then were joined by more from Brent and Barnet. The ride was led by David Arditti with a special flag. Other marshalls had orange tabards and used special techniques to protect the mass of cyclists which included many children.

We were able to ride lawfully through the Broad Walk in Regent's Park as it is open for a three months trial.

We squeezed through the traffic to get into Hyde Park.

There was plenty of good secure parking at Hyde Park.

And we squeezed through the crowds in the Peoples Village to our special vantage point where we were able to view the event from wherever we liked and yet get a good view. We were amused to see French police driving through and particularly admired their very quiet motor bikes.

We enjoyed the marvellous variety of vehicles in the Caravane.

But the carbon footprint of the race could be questioned: each rider was preceded by a motor bike and followed by two cars.

Photos by Lionel Shapiro

See some more photos on the Flickr site