BathMTB: Ride Report and Tour of Britain Spectators Report (Part 1, Wales)

[Andy Stewart]

Good to hear that 'the hardy few' are still at it 
 
Managed a short ride yesterday along the Railway Path to Bitton and planning to ride to Kingsdown / Box way myself tomorrow to visit new (expensive!) physio I'm seeing who's based at Hartham Park near Corsham.
 
Tour of Britain Ride Report:
 
Thursday: Caerphilly. Wales. Sailed down the M4 and arrived mega early as I had to drop K at work on the way there. So early they were still setting up the finish... a roadsweeper was rumbling up and down and somehow managed to dump a load of diesel on the road!!! Cue panic from the organisers who summoned the local fire service to help mop it up and wash down the road!!! I thought that might get a mention in Ned's TV report (met him later too) but it didn't. 
 
A public 'sportive' was being ridden the same day on the second half of the course so tons of riders about. 
 
Sussed out the climb. Easy walk from the town. Quite like Brassknocker but a bit less steep and longer, houses at the bottom, past woods and fields and flattened out at a huge cafe at the top.
 
Crowds started getting in position about midday. Got chatting to a group setting up a 'Go Rowe' banner who turned out to be the young Sky riders family - his parent and both grans! He lives just a few miles away and was a member of the Cardiff Ajax club. 
 
Skoda giving out free coffee and cake and loads of Future people there with Wattbike. 
 
Met up with a couple more of the guys from BathCC and a big contingent from Somer Valley who'd ridden down from Aust.
 
Crowds built steadily until they were huge. Bigger even than they were at Cheddar last year.
 
An increasing number of police cars and more motorbikes. The road closure seems to be put in place earlier this time.
 
People checking live updates on phones and news came of Jon Tiernan-Locke from Endura being in a break with one other rider. The helicopter came into view, then more bikes and cars and sure enough 'JTL' - the mega climber who won the KoM last year - was on the front putting in maximum effort on the steep climb trying his utmost to take the overall lead. (He lives in Plymouth and started off racing MTBs with my cousin. Plus he lived in Bristol for 3 years while he was atthe University of the West of England where Karina works!). 
 
The bunch followed about a minute later. Cav and most of Sky were off the back. Cav 'taking it easy'!  We shouted so loud he looked back and smiled at us as he went by. Fantastic to see him on British roads wearing the Rainbow Stripes. I remember seeing Thor in them last year at Cheddar - who would have believed then that Cav would go on to take the title off him?
 
They were strung out but still all past us in about 2 minutes. But that wasn't it! 
 
..6 minutes later they were back again doing another loop!!
 
I headed down the climb as soon as they were passed to get to the finish passing by Caerphilly Castle. Got there in time to see a knackered looking Cav cross the line to great cheers... and followed him to the team bus. Massive crowd around it which he politely made his way through, propped up his bike and climbed on the bus giving us a wave at the top of the steps. 
 
Then Luke Rowe came off the bus with his phone to his ear, his 'fan club' arrived and he spent ages chatting to everyone, signing autographs. He's had a fantastic Tour and looks set to stay with SKy and take on some of the bigger races next year. A future Grand Tour Stage Winner? 
 
Dave Brailsford then turned up in the second team car and spent ages chatting and posing for pictures. Told him about my crash, getting to Paris and meeting Shane and talked about likely changes for next year - will Cav leave? JTL join? Will Wiggo go for the Tour or the Giro instead and leave Froome to the Tour? (Wiggo wasn't there unfortunately he "had the shits" according to Dave and had pulled out that day).
 
After about 20 minutes Peta, Cav's partner turned up with their baby. I was really surprised that she didn't disappear in the bus either but was chatting to fans and the team staff.
 
Then Cav appeared having showered and changed out of his kit. Was a genuinely nice guy. Chatted to everyone but especially spent time posing for photos and giving out freebies to the kids that were there. Reminded me of the bit in his book where he mentioned meeting David Millar when he was a kid. He's previously been known as a bit of a primadonna when dealing with fans but it seems that's changed. He held his daughter and clearly becoming a dad has had a huge effect on him too..
 
Eventually they got the bikes all packed up and headed off on the bus.. into what turned out to be a traffic nightmare! The M4 was shut and it took me 2 1/2 hours to get home!
Apparently there were problems on the M5 too and it took the Teams 5 hours to get to Exeter (where they stayed overnight)..
 
Part 2.. (Saturday on Dartmoor) to follow.. (if anyone is interested - I want to hear Tavs version: 'The Fastest Hill Climber in The Tour of Britain' :-)
 
Andy
 
 

________________________________
From: BOYD Kevin <Kevin.Boyd at uk.thalesgroup.com>
To: "bathmtb at mtb-oz.com" <bathmtb at mtb-oz.com> 
Sent: Thursday, 20 September 2012, 10:03
Subject: BathMTB: Ride Report


Hey All
 
I arrived at 6.25pm and with no body else there my heart sank as I thought I was on for a solo effort, thankfully Rich arrived at 6.30, then Steve popped by for a quick chat and finally Justin arrived (being a dad has done nothing for his time keeping, plus he admits he fell asleep !)
 
So we waved goodbye to Steve and headed off for a loop of Box. Along the very busy canal, there seems to be a big running club that head out this way now on a Wednesday, so runners passed we head up towards Browns but keeping to the road to go via Kingsdown and a little bit of track along the golf course, then out towards Hazlebury manor. Just for a change we did a anti clockwise loop around the house, for some reason Kevin thought it would be easier this way…..he was wrong. Justin was doing a great job on his SS as he cleared all the climbs. At Box we had a quick play in the woods which were by now very dark, summer really is over. Back out on the road Rich suspected he had a slow puncture, so stopped for some air…..10 minutes later we stopped again to change it, near Corsham. An uneventful ride over the fields to Colerne, although Justin suffered on his rigid as the churned up fields had now set hard. We were rang into Colerne by those darn
 campanologists and their bells. Finally we blasted along for the descent of Bannerdown, with Rich and Justin vying for fastest.
 
A great and more importantly DRY ride, will not be many more left so if nothing else try and get out this weekend so you too can say " Ah yes 2012 I did have one ride that was mud free".
 
Kevin  
 
Kevin Boyd CEng
Information and Cyber Security IA Consultant
National Security and Resilience
Defence & Security C4I Systems
Thales UK
230 Bristol Business Park, The Close, Bristol BS16 1FJ
www.thalesgroup.com
 Mob: +44 (0) 7891602084
e-mail: kevin.boyd at uk.thalesgroup.com
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