2015 tour of Britain

[bobc]

What an excellent day I had watching the tour yesterday.
Pendle area was looking fabulous, not a breath of wind, warm but not too warm, party atmosphere in Clitheroe and Colne.
The roundabout route meant that I was able to watch then pass in 3 places by cycling just 16miles (mind you that included 2000ft of climbing....) including I now have photos of the peleton passing the house I was born in 58 years ago..!!
Highlights included my drink bottle exploding (really!) and a no. 27 bus getting stuck at 45degrees across the race route cross roads at whins lane in between the 2 sections of the peleton (the bike copper became quite animated!!!)
LOTs of cyclists out on the route; at one stage I was idly totting up the value of bikes I saw (spectators only) but gave up with that game at somewhat over £100k...
And there must have been 50 bike coppers preceding the race - seemed a bit OTT.

[LollyKat]

It probably takes 50 coppers to lift a bus out of the way.

[honesty]

Yeh the amount of motorbikes going in front of the race when I watched it going through Devon last year did seem rather a lot. I guess it's because they need to enforce the rolling road closures.

So far, watching it on the TV, this year has been good. Not liking the commentary team compared to the ITV4 Vuelta one though.

[mjr]

Yeh the amount of motorbikes going in front of the race when I watched it going through Devon last year did seem rather a lot. I guess it's because they need to enforce the rolling road closures.

According to this year's race manual, there's 25 moto marshals from the National Escort Group and 31 moto police. With many of them continuously overtaking the race to enforce the rolling road closures, it's surprising there aren't more crashes.

I agree on the itv commentary team. There are so many commentators who do a better job at live coverage than Hugh Porter now (couldn't they lure someone away from the other events currently on?) that I think British Cycling must have Mr Porter on some sort of season-long deal. MTN-Qhubeka's General Manager Brian Smith has too big a conflict of interest for my taste.

However, I have been really pleasantly surprised by presenter Matt Barbet who is so much better at apparently working live (presumably with a constant stream of changes being given into an earpiece) than when he was reading scripts on the Cycle Show. He doesn't have Gary Imlach's wonderful wordplay, but otherwise pretty good.

[honesty]

Absolutely. As a live presenter he seems to be doing rather a good job. Cant beat Gary and Ned, but still good. Just need to change the commentary team. The one that's surprised me this year has been David Millar. he seems to have really come into it this year, and he's adding relevant and interesting commentary to the programme. We really need the ToB shifted so it doesnt overlap with the last week of the Vuelta, though I suppose that would then clash with the world championships.

[Tom1601204]

Volunteered at Colne on Monday just reward to the town after staging a number of circuit events in the past. Sir Bradley commanded the most spectator interest in the Tour bus site and his team was the last to leave. Followed the convoy of police back along the M65 with a Range Rover and BMW on there way to Cumbria. There seemed to be a lot of drivers testing there brakes and juggling with mobile phones lucky for them they weren't the French Police from TdF.

[PH]

Great day out yesterday in the sunshine, caught the leading group at the top of Cromford Hill then raced to Belper where we just missed seeing them again but had time for a pint before the main group came through.

ToB 2015-6 by Paul, on Flickr

A few more here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/phbike/al ... 8485285411

[Si]

caught the leading group at the top of Cromford Hill

Blimey, you must be fit, PH

[PH]

caught the leading group at the top of Cromford Hill

Blimey, you must be fit, PH

Oh it was nothing