Our weekend revolved around the Tour de France. On Saturday we headed into London for the Prologue. We arrived at Victoria and wandered along to Hyde Park with the intention of soaking up the atmosphere, watching some of the time trials and investigating the People’s village.
Our first observation was just how busy it was. The cyclists were out warming up around the route, and so as we walked along South Carriage Drive we watched the cyclists whoosh past. The last cycle race I saw was when I was a child and the milk race came to Hull. My memories from that day were just how fast the cyclists were, but I imagined I’d overestimated this in my memory. Not so, admittedly this was a time trial, but it was amazingly fast. We spent 2 or 3 hours in the park before heading back to Brighton, just in time to watch Fabian Cancellara’s winning ride.
On Sunday we headed off with friends into Kent to Iden Green and found ourselves a spot near the road by The Peacock. We arrived really early and watched more and more people arrive to watch both the caravane and the race later. The riders were amazing to watch (albeit briefly). The breakway group of 5 were followed by at least 10 vehicles, possibly more like 15. The main group came along 4 or 5 minutes later.
A great couple of days, and quite a spectacle. Looking forward to it coming back to the UK again soon but in the meantime I’ll have to make do with the ITV4 coverage and the ITV and BikeRadar podcasts. More photos
