Tour of Britain 2024

Good fun that.

Rolled down from home and people were out in the streets early whole Primary class outside Rivelin Fire Station.  Malin Bridge filling up.  School kids in Oughtibridge going nuts waving flags as I (and others obvs) rolled through.   Got a PB up Jawbone – off to see how it stacks up! Then rolled down to watch on a longish straight.

Won’t post spoilers but pretty cool to see the big names.  I called who would be on the front yesterday and was right.

Police were in the spirit of it – chucking out mints to us and waving.

All round good vibe for all be it 2 minutes of actual action!

Zoomed home to join Zoom. Jealous of those spectators that are chasing the race to the finish.

Derbyshire Police are on social media ahead of tomorrow’s stage with lots of advice about respect, courtesy, close passes etc.

Shame about the bit saying cyclists have “a responsibility to…..to use cycle lanes where available”. I have asked them to check the Highway Code s61 and amend the wording.

Rolled down from home and people were out in the streets early whole Primary class outside Rivelin Fire Station. Malin Bridge filling up. School kids in Oughtibridge going nuts waving flags as I (and others obvs) rolled through.

The schools are all out in force – not sure which town it was that we passed through but there must have been 1000 pupils out aged from about 5 up to teenagers! Whole street was filled with them for half a mile!

Nice to see Ringinglow in all its glory!

Lovely turn out on Lodge Lane five minutes from my house. Inspirational roofbar loading.

There’s a very tight, very steep bend that we all stood on. As one of the italian riders got to it he let out a very audible “f***ng hell”, which amused us all.

I was disappointed that most of Ringinglow to Lodge Lane passed during an ad break.

I was disappointed that most of Ringinglow to Lodge Lane passed during an ad break.

Literally couldn’t see a bloody thing up there. Misty, damp roads, the peloton all frisky at the start plus really winding twisty roads. Almost impossible to film anything. I’m not even sure the aerial relay plane was up. Certainly no helicopter at all today.

One of the photography motos went down on a corner, the photographer was taken to hospital.

There’s a very tight, very steep bend that we all stood on. As one of the italian riders got to it he let out a very audible “f***ng hell”, which amused us all.

There’s one near us tomorrow that may prove “interesting”. They have at least filled the cavernous pot hole just round the blind bend – the locals out a big warning sign out for it earlier in the year.

Nice party vibes on the video. I am sure once these riders take off tomorrow as usual via elvaston castle they will light it up through Risley and romp up no mans and the lesser climb as they leave Dale Abbey. I think cloves hill would have slowed them a little more but for these guys it’s meat & drink. I may try and get down for the warm ups and bit before the start, depending hiw early it starts. I’ve seen the start time but it doesn’t detail how much earlier it’s advisable to go down. I remembered wiggins doing the depart when he was tdf champion and that was crazy busy tho i didn’t make it down early enough back in 2012

Is the itv coverage always that ropey on the highlights?

Rotheringham is a place i must explore between Sheffield and Doncaster, and its nice to know Thorpe Hesley and Keppel’s Column are now in the Peak District

I managed to get down to Derby Velodrome about an hour before the start, it was nice to see all the teams presented on a beautiful morning. It looked a healthy turnout with  crowd but not overkill probably because it was a weekday.

There was a lot of people fighting to get a look at Evenpoel, climbing through trees etc like paparazzi. I took a steady ride behind the lotto soudal crew as they rode up to be presented, Remco was on a nice Gold Specialized but i want one of the trinity specialized bikes which were very bright.

Nice green cycling caps and flags handed out, the last one i got was at the tour de france leeds when the wagon drove past near the start of the opening stage. Its nice the event managed to go ahead and bring some good vibes to all the cyclists and wider public. There is still a long way to go for cycling in the UK but this was a positive event fron what i could see with some excitement for tbe occasion.

Great day for the Derby stage yesterday – our youth academy led them out ahead of the neutral start and peeled off just before the flag dropped at Elvaston – one and his mum set themselves up for the “kid cycling on the pavement alongside peloton” shot and ITV and the Tour picked it up on social media.

Big turn out in the village as the council had put some activities on – 3 of us manned a stall for the club and got interviewed by local ITV news but didn’t make the cut, but a friend’s daughter made the BBC local news talking about how great the cycling was – ironic as she’s a gymnast and my daughter coaches her!

Very weird watching the tour ride your local roads, they look totally different, and much flatter! The live coverage cut to an advert just as they turned into our village and came back just as the left us. Bastards!

Well I thought it was a bit disrespectful to cut to the adverts while Cav was being interviewed on the podium. Mind you he was still banging on after the adverts finished.

I see the podium 1,2,3 got boxes of Pringles.

Do not go on any local paper post about the race on Facebook unless you enjoy winding up people posting about how the police outriders are a waste of taxpayers money, why the riders aren’t fined for breaking the 20mph speed limit through villages and the compulsory “road tax” comments

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/nukgH7YngGPwG788/

We were in Suffolk so headed up to Lowestoft for the start today. It was nice being able to have a good look at the team bikes before the stage, plenty of riders running 55t chainrings, I don’t think I’d be able to turn the pedals in 55/11!

plenty of riders running 55t chainrings, I don’t think I’d be able to turn the pedals in 55/11!

The pace today was RAPID. Significantly faster than even the fastest scheduled time, they were not hanging around.

Paul Magnier, the red jersey points leader, had a tangle with Tom Pidcock, both crashed (along with several others) and abandoned.

The loss of Magnier prompted a flurry of other attacks from Lotto-Soudal (Evenepoel in particular) which split everything to bits until eventually things calmed down for a while.

Theres a good write up of the stage here:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-britain-2024/stage-6/results/

Cav was at the finish for a special presentation too. Turns out that as well as holding the record for TdF stage wins, he also has the record for Tour of Britain wins!

Do not go on any local paper post about the race on Facebook unless you enjoy winding up people posting about how the police outriders are a waste of taxpayers money, why the riders aren’t fined for breaking the 20mph speed limit through villages and the compulsory “road tax” comments

Generally, the atmosphere out on the roadside was amazing. Especially the schoolkids in the weekdays.

A few pro-Palastine demos and some shouting at Israel – PremierTech.

Outside the race bubble, a few shouts from drivers stuck in traffic. Turns out that driving a fully branded race vehicle through a town centre (after the race, driving back to hotels etc) when everyone else has been stuck in queuing traffic generates a few shouts but there was nothing actually threatening and no attempts at sabotage, throwing tacks etc. The villages has really gone big on it, loads of bunting, support, big crowds.

The police outriders up the front commented on how unbelievably thick some drivers were – getting into arguments about how they always drive down this road at this time. I’m convinced that a couple of Cheshire towns had “coordinated” something similar during the Women’s Tour, it seemed that every driveway we went past at one point had a posh SUV nosing out of it. Oh yeah, we just happen to want to drive to Waitrose at exactly the time that the race is passing…

Thought I’d better share my favourite photo from Kelso. I bet he’ll be boring people for years telling them about the time he met me.

One of mine from today ^^^ Peasenhall. We left straight away and bombed it down to Rendham.