Competitors and spectators alike gather downtown for this annual race (161Cong.Rec.S5003)

A recent weekend in London was full of sports events, and since I couldn't be a competitor, I set out to be a spectator. On the Saturday, I struck out early for Battersea Park, so I could run a few laps around the Peace Pagoda (left) and the fountains near the Children's Zoo (right) before taking in my first race of the weekend.

I finished my run earlier than I expected, so I killed time -- and undid all my exercise -- by having a true full English breakfast, sans mushrooms, at the nearby Battersea Grill. Once I stuffed myself with eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, toast, and grilled tomatoes, I headed back to the park's promenade to be Thames-side for the finish of the Doggett's Race.

Actor Thomas Doggett first organized the rowing race from London Bridge, near the Shard (left), to Cadogan Pier, near Albert Bridge (right), in 1715, to commemorate George I's ascension to the throne. Now, the Coat and Badge, a pub named after the prizes awarded to the winner, organizes the annual contest among young watermen.

Louis Pettipher crossed the finish line first by one of the shortest margins in recent memory (left). He was trailed by large boats with cheering fans and smaller ones with TV crews and a few former winners in their red coats and badges (right).

 

On the Sunday, everybody was talking about a different annual competition, the Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium between the winners of the Premier League, in this case Chelsea FC, and the FA Cup, the Arsenal FC. (A few days later, everyone was talking about the London Marathon because of some woman who ran without a tampon, but that world-class event -- and scandal -- actually happened back in April.)

Still finding my feet in regards to soccer -- er, football -- mania, I knew nothing about the match yet (nor the marathon, for that matter). And even if I had, tickets were long sold out, so I was more than happy to walk two blocks to watch RideLondon -- for free. When I walked Sage in the morning, they were just closing down the high street of Putney (left), but when we came past for his afternoon walk, skeins of cyclists were coming through (right).

Unfortunately, my bike didn't arrive in time for me to join the amateur FreeCycle, a dedicated cycling loop around downtown with festival stops along the way. After the amateurs cleared out of the loop on the previous day, professionals circumnavigated the part of the route around St. James's Park for the Grand Prix criterion races. The cyclists coming through my hood in the morning were mostly amateurs participating in the London-Surrey 100, an event so popular that participants are selected by lottery from the first 100,000 ballot entries (left). When the riders chugged downhill past The Railway pub, they were within 10 kilometers of the finish line (right).

 

There probably weren't many spectators for the first event of the day, the professional Handcycle Classic, but by mid-morning, some spare people, including myself, had gathered along the barriers (left). One inventive group of people used the closed-off road as an excuse to hold a street party. They were being serenaded by a string quartet as the cyclists sped by (right).

The final event of the day was the London-Surrey Classic, a 200k Olympic-style race in which 150 professional cyclists compete for the biggest one-day money pot. Event organizers handed out pamphlets with photos of the top racers' jerseys, so you could spot your favorite in the crowd. Apparently, this year's was a good race because two beloved Brits -- Bradley Wiggins, a member of the eponymous Union Cycliste Internationale Continental Team Wiggins, and Mark Cavendish, a member of the UCI Pro Team Etixx Quick-Step -- both competed. But the racers went by so fast that I couldn't pick either of them out -- nor the winner Jean-Pierre Drucker, a French-speaking interloper from Luxembourg who rides for the UCI Worldtour Team BMC Racing.