i have to say i'm not surprised, some on here will remember my status update on facebook that day.
i had been in southampton and decided that on the way home i'd stop in brockenhurst and go for a ride on the mtb, as i came down the a337 from lyndhurst to brock there was lots of slow traffic, i didn't think too much about it initially but then i started seeing loads of roadies, i immediately realised it was the wiggle ride. there were roadies in several groups riding at basic spinning pace, not racing, none going particularly fast but what they were doing was riding in packs, 2/3/4 abreast on a main road, i couldn't believe it, you could see the face of every driver was like thunder and in some ways i don't blame them.
i parked up near the balmer lawn hotel and got my bike out, i rode towards the a337 as i had to cross it to start my ride, the roadies were swarmed around cars at the T junction on to the a337, it was unbelievable.
when i finished my ride about 2 hours later i then had to cross the a337 again to get back to the van, i turned off the a337 into the road i had previously come out of, the was a queue of about 6 or 7 cars, still surrounded by cyclists, to the point where the driver can not see out of his windows either side, bearing in mind the car queue to the junction it was long enough that it went around a slightly bend in the road, obviously i was on the opposite side of the road to the queue and the direction of the wiggle ride, as i rounded the bend at the left side of the road 2 roadies came around the bend, effectively on the wrong side of the road as they were overtaking the queue of cars at the junction, the one nearest to me was doing none handed while talking to his friend and hadn't even noticed me until i shouted at him, if i had been in a car he would have been dead.
while i agree that it is important to get people on bikes, when i see the bigger events like these i get frustrated sometimes as i can see why others get annoyed with them because any group regardless of the activity can cause a disturbance. there will always be the inexperienced riders who make mistakes but sometimes a mob mentality grows out of the arrogance that "we are the biggest group". the roads are not closed to cars etc, other people are using them, people should really bear this in mind but there is a percentage that don't.
i also bumped into one of the marshals for this event a week or so ago, he said they had disqualified a lot of riders on the day, during the ride for infringements of the guidelines that they sign to say they will adhere to, those people are banned from entering the events again.
it wouldn't surprise me if wiggle don't sponsor this ride for much longer as it is giving them negative publicity everytime it's on.