Olympic Park / Queen Elizabeth Park - loop road open?

I think @DarrenFranks has talked about a loop around there he uses for ftp tests but i may be wrong.

maybe @HoKe

Looks like you're right. Can't wait to check it out.

https://www.strava.com/segments/5697915

A decent effort around the airport is about 8 minutes so I use it for VO2 Max intervals.
https://www.strava.com/segments/5697915

There are a couple of traffic lights but every other lap is usually uninterrupted. It's not perfect but it's another option to throw in with Regents laps, especially now that Loop Road is kiboshed.

For FTP tests I head out to Thamesmead and use this segment https://www.strava.com/segments/9228148

I live around here, and if you get here super early in the morning ‘potentially’ you can do some laps here, but personally I wouldn’t recommend it.

Currently we have a lot of construction lorries coming through here on a daily bases and the usual lorries going to the Woolwich ferry too.

Also the roads here aren’t the best IMO, but I guess you can try it yourself to see if you’re happy with this loop. I know a few TT riders around here but one occasional fixie skidder too.

Thanks for the intel.

construction lorries

Ugh. This has gotten out of control around the Olympic Park now. There are now five or six separate construction sites. Most mornings I'll encounter a queue of tippers or cement mixers double parked, waiting to go onto one of them.

I don't think I'll ever make city airport work for my usual daily riding - as that's 8am-9:30am four days a week. I could look to get over there at 6am one day a week or on the occasional weekend, though, so will give it a try soon just to see.

This is the circuit I've managed to fashion, but I'm lucky to ride 1 in 20 laps at anything like decent intensity https://www.strava.com/segments/20967733

@J0nathan having worked down beckton way years ago and cycled around the area I would say any loop in that part of town would be the riding equivalent of 'the deliverance' . if you hear banjo/ acoustic guitar duelling get the fuck out . take care fella

QEOP development plans here - https://www.sheppardrobson.com/architecture/view/east-wick-sweetwater

this time it's the bit near Here East

So they're just building on more and more of the park? That's really sad to see.

Yep. I remember reading pamphlets post 2012 about what a massive park had been made, the biggest in over 100 years, and now loads of it is being built on

So that’s the hockey centre and the copper box disappearing then?
Is the road alongside the development (between the development and the river) also the starting are for PRL? That’ll be a popular one with the locals...

This place is a total joke now. Given up on it.

No, it is just to the east of Here East and south of Copper box on the other side of the tracks. It will, however, effectively split north park and south park in two.

It's the bit where they used to have the festivals, Mooooooooooooondance may have been one of them.

I chanced upon it because the marketing as came up on Facebook, but I couldn't see where the development was, so I had a search and found the architect site above.

There is also that massive road bridge going in at some point, that will link Fish Island (RIP) to the QEOP near the stadium

Removing a pleasant, open and well-used public space or:

"...playing a crucial part in mending the gap in urban fabric between Hackney Wick, River Lea Navigation and the QEOP. "

Ah. I’ve just aligned the park map and the architects map. For some reason I’d always thought that the hockey centre was on the site of the Olympic hockey stadium even though I have been there several times since the games and the hockey pitches clearly weren’t there :). I see now the hockey centre is to the north of the velodrome.

The nice space between Copper box and Here East had disappeared , I saw when I cycled past there from the new tag to the old tag yesterday.

Ah, I was riding across there just a few weeks ago and was wondering when that was finally going to happen.

This happened shortly after Johnson 'became' Mayor of London. I was doing some work with the Eastway Users' Group (the group trying to secure a reasonable replacement for the old Eastway) at the time. Between 2004 and 2008, we'd successfully negotiated a plan for the Velopark, with a wide western loop that extended almost all the way to Waterden Road, and it was all done and dusted, when suddenly we were being summoned to new meetings and it was all up in the air again. We called their bluff and said that their real motivation was not to have 'a better park' but to build housing there, but they just lied to us in meeting after meeting. I only attended a few of them, but I know the others found it intensely frustrating.

They basically wanted to push the western loop of the circuit far back because of wanting the land for housing. I think that initially they may even have wanted to keep it east of the river, although I can't remember. It ended up with a hard-fought and still not adequate compromise. Planning being largely unaccountable, anyway (though not as bad as per the latest proposals under Johnson), and the Olympics adding another couple of layers of opacity, unaccountability, and corruption, we knew they were lying but there was nothing we could do.

A project has been set up to seek public opinion and comments regarding Westfield Avenue in Stratford and the surrounding area with the aim to 'improve walking, cycling and public transport'. Thought it could be useful to share here.

https://westfieldavenuemap.commonplace.is/

Thanks. Will take a look.

I actually went down there this morning for the first time in a while. Here’s what the routing looks like by the stadium now.

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I was there today and it's basically all changed again in the past month. I saw 1 person doing reps on Northwall Road (0.6 miles...) which is closed off for cars on both ends but accessible for pedestrians and bikes and that seems to be the best of all the bad options there.

Anyone else have good suggestions for small loops east that may work on a lunch break (30-50km?)

I did this loop the other day and it worked quite well (you can vary how to go through East Village but the main stretch from the Aquatics Centre round to Northwall Road is good).

https://www.strava.com/segments/26059725

Thanks! Going to try this in a sec.

This can be forgotten about at the moment, as Northwall Road is completely shut off and full of vehicles filming.

Thanks, I wanted to ask about this.

Does anyone have any other routes/loops that are quiet in the mornings around east? I'm still trekking it to Regents which was great when I was in the office nearby, but it takes me longer to get there and back then the time I spend actually cycling there.