69.91Km + some beers
So today I was going to ride the course of final stage of the Tour of Britain course just before the pros took to the streets. It was a rare opportunity to blast around a traffic free London that I couldn't pass up, even though I should have done.
It turned out that the pain in my right knee from the Three Peaks ride had not gone away and I was booked in for an x-ray this coming Wednesday with a potential MRI and physio happening shortly after... knowing all this I took a few painkillers and decided to go anyway.
I was weirdly overexcited/nervous about the ride, it was my first mass start ride and my first time on the bike in a few days due to considerable amounts of pain, so I went to great lengths to prep my kit to give me no reason to chicken out in the morning.
As t turned out I was very over-prepped (although no so prepped I remembered to bring normal trousers for after the riding!) and ended up arriving a solid hour and a half early. Thisdid mean I could have a very relaxed breakfast to give me the energy to manage to get lost enroute to the start line of a closed 5.5Km course, with giant pink arrows pointing the way. I thought that was quite impressive.
While I was waiting for Mig and Tommy to rock up I saw a reassuringly weird array of bikes lining up for the start, from a man in full topper and tails on a penny farthing to an older gent on a Schwinn cruiser right through to a kid who can't have been older than 10 on a racing bike with aero bars (he would later overtake us). Finally the other two showed up, Mig had come on his fixie with his normal bike being currently under repair.
We chatted for so long before heading through to the start that we were very nearly the last in the start pen for the off which made for a very slow beginning. Over the first couple of Km's the bunch thinned out and we were able to put in a few sprints down the strand which was good fun. The atmosphere was brilliant and seemingly everyone had an air horn and was making full use of it!
We zipped around the course 4 times, going for a sprint finish each time we got to the line and Tommy got a shout out from the commentator for the cuddly Lion he had tucked into his brake cables on one run (his reasoning being that he's a teacher, which apparently explains everything...). We had planned to do one final sprint over the line to finish but got ushered off the course just before the final corner which was a shame, though it did mean it was time for beers and food.
Bimbling back to Q Park where we had stashed our kit and there was secure bike storage we changed into more sensible clothes and went to find a pub while we waited for the real racing to begin. Mig and Tommy's other halves showed up at this point and we all went to grab some food from Itsu overlooking one part of the course. We then installed ourselves in the sunshine with some hastily bought beer and prosecco from Tesco after none of the bars would let us take glasses onto the street.
The race itself was awesome, being so close to the pros as they zoomed past and the fact it was a circuit race so we got to see them come past multiple time was fantastic. Watching G take it easy and almost amble up and down the peloton was interesting to watch as well. Mig managed to get himself a bidon thrown from one of the riders, though he did have to nearly slide tackle another spectator to secure it. The race ended with a cracking sprint finish from Caleb Ewan.
With the racing over we wandered back to grab the bikes and head home. It was at this point I realised I had consumed the equivalent of about three pints (thankfully with food and over a number of hours) and so took the ride home very steadily. I would wholeheartedly not recommend this but thankfully I was on my normal commute route so knew it like the back of my hand. All in all a successful day out and one I would be very keen to repeat if the Tour of Britain finishes in London again next year.
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