Tour of Britain

[purplecat]

We had no idea that our visit to Cornwall coincided with the Tour of Britain cycle race. We observed, as we arrived on Friday evening, a lot of sign-posting warning of delays on the roads on the 5th. Investigation of the local newsletter in the cottage information pack revealed that Stage One of the Tour of Britain would be coming past the end of the road on Sunday. Careful deciphering of the Tour of Britain website left us with a 40 minute "best guess" window of when this would be happening. So we toddled up the road with some time to spare (because we weren't quite sure how far away the relevant cross-roads was). After about 40 minutes the Offspring got quite restless. Everyso often a team car would go past; or tow trucks (presumably to remove potential obstacles); or confused drivers. Eventually a procession of police motorcyclists came past all of whom were clearly enjoying themselves far too much, followed by "blink and you'll miss it" tons of cyclists then a stream of team cars that all got backed up on the corner.

I don't think the Offspring was that impressed.


Meanwhile the local community had clearly taken to the idea of decorating in preparation with enthusiasm...

Comments

[shivver]

This happened to me! I've only been to the UK twice, once in 2014 and once in 2018. In 2014, my friend and I landed in Bristol and went to Bath, and after we got set up in the B&B, we started walking around the town, and apparently that was the day the Tour of Britain went through. We could see the spectator setup in the distance and just as we got there, the horde of bikes went by. We only found out afterwards what it was.

And then in 2017 in Montreal, I got stuck trying to cross a road by another bike race, but I don't know which one it was. It turns out there was also supposed to be a nude bike race through the city the next weekend I was there, but it was postponed due to bad weather.

[senmut]

NEAT!

[purplecat]

That's cool it's happened to both of us.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this was deliberate or just lucky, but your photo managed to get the stage winner dead centre. The guy in the black, yellow and red jersey (denoting that he is the Belgian national champion) is superstar Wout van Aert. In this year's Tour de France he had the distinction of winning a stage in a bunch sprint, a big mountain stage and an individual time trial. Winning three such different stages is something that hasn't been done in decades. And he won that opening stage of the Tour of Britain.

[purplecat]

Not deliberate at all!! I don't follow cycling and the Tour of Britain website is not for the faint-hearted!! Pretty cool to know!