A grand day out… Started off with some colleagues and I having a breakfast with the mayor/100 local dignitaries & VIPs/David Duffield as a guest of Frome Town Council. Milled about and met loads of friends/old faces in the crowd before the start of the race. Then we were treated to the ToB VIP area with MORE breakfast, viewing platform and visiting riders (had a nice chat with Kristian House – top bloke) as guests of the Prostate Cancer Charity.

Then Bully's special prize: me and Alwayshorizontal were introduced to one of the UCI commissaires (and his driver) and then rode in the back of said commissaire's car for all the 114 miles to the finish in Bideford. Only *slight* drawback was the 4 commissaires have a 'duty rota' and today, it was our's turn to drive at the back of the race minding all the stragglers. So we didn't actually see much of the action up front.

Still great fun to be involved, though. Race radio (mostly in a curious bi-lingual Glaswegian and French) in the car was fantastic to listen to. The commissaire was occasionally standing on his seat, torso out the sunroof (as they do) at 60mph. And the driver was a nutter. In fact ALL the drivers (team cars included) are nutters. Absurd overtaking manoeuvres, high-speed cornering on the wrong side of the road. What a rush!

Few pics below. There's 200 more where these came from :O)

Start area as viewed from platform.

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Neutralized zone out of Frome. Note the official UCI tape sticking the rider list and route profile to the dashboard ;O)

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Nicholas Roche – having stopped for 'natural' – makes his way back to the peloton.

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Through Wells.

If i knew you were in the car, i'd of pee'd through your window as you passed me.

Great pics Chas.

Frome was widely reported as being the best Depart this Tour. Was great to be there.

Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift (who went on to win Stage 7 – his first pro win)

The full set on flickr

great piccys! i was there at the scottish stage on monday and got to ride in the sram neutral service providers car….i had a very similar experience to yourself..its definitely the way to watch a road race! highlights included going thru innnerleithen at 80mph on the wrong side of the road,watching the break was very cool and chatting to bradley wiggins briefly at the end…..

i love having a bikeshop sometimes! it gets you some great experiences..

Superb shots, Andy! I'll be in touch about a couple of hi-res's, please.

(PS
Dan Fleemans (KoM – No.103) was Thomas de Gendt;
the one entitled "Ed Clancy (?)" isn't him – Ed's ginger with red glasses (there's one of him earlier on);
and the last pic "Hugh Porter" is David Duffield ;O)

I went and watched stage 4 and kept up with the race on ITV4 and the WWW. It was truly great to watch.

WHat I couldn't understand is why did they not have a very mountain stage say doing the same route as the Fred Witton in the Lakes with a finish at the top of Hardnott that would really split the feild up and blow the race apart, a bit like the Mt Ventoux stage,

C

WHat I couldn't understand is why did they not have a very mountain stage say doing the same route as the Fred Witton in the Lakes

Because that's not what this sort of race is about, and the roads would also be deemed to be unsafe for a peleton like that I suspect.

Because that's not what this sort of race is about, and the roads would also be deemed to be unsafe for a peleton like that I suspect.

Shame, as that would be a shock to some of the sprinters. Hard Knott on a 42×21 would be "interesting"!

on a 42×21

What century are you living in, sofatester?