OK, they're roadies (take 'em!) but the guys racing in the Smithfield Nocturne are a fast bunch of bicycle riders, that's for sure. Run as a criterium race around Smithfield meat market, the Nocturne has been running since 2007 and is real sight if you've never seen professional roadies doing what they do best.

And unlike the Tour De France where you wait for three hours to see the pack pass in mere seconds they keep coming round and round too, lapping the short course for an hour plus five laps and the action fast and furious.

 

 

 

The prelude to this is the folding bike race, in which competitors have to race in jacket and tie following a classic Le Mans style start where they have to run across the road and unfold their bikes before pedalling off and into the race. Cracking stuff - we'll have to convince Claire to enter next year on her Brompton!