Tour of Britain

I managed to persuade one of my sons to come with me to watch the final stage of the Tour of Britain on Saturday. The weather was great and I only had to use mild bribery to get him to come with me – “You’ll be watching some of the fastest men on bikes in the world. And I’ll bring snacks”.

So we set off on Saturday lunchtime for Waterloo, my son carrying his Mr Men book for the journey, and me carrying my backpack containing one sunhat, one waterproof rain coat, two packets of crisps (cheese and onion), two large sausage rolls, one chicken, bacon and sweetcorn sandwich, four digestive biscuits, four bourbon biscuits, one litre of water, two carrots, 200g of Japanese rice crackers, two Pepperamis, one Lucozade Sport and one can of Diet Coke. Enough for at least a couple of hours (my son is like the Hungry Caterpillar)!

We watched about half the race from the Embankment, alternating between the birdseye view from Hungerford Bridge and the street level view. It was great to see the Embankment closed to traffic for a change – the city actually felt reasonably peaceful for a change (apart from the 20 or so support cars bombing past every lap).


After about 5 laps my son started to get a little bored, so I suggested that we go to the park instead for a bit. As we walked up towards the finish line (at the 200m to go sign) my son spotted the giant TV screen. Now this was different – watching live was OK, but getting to watch the race on a giant telly – amazing! Unfortunately he couldn’t see unless I held him up, so I spent the second half of the race straining to hold him high enough that he could see whilst still leaning forwards far enough that I could see the bunch approaching. The pumping dance music and loud commentary kept my son’s attention enough that we stayed to the end to see the Barloworld rider Merlo win the sprint finish (I saw it live, my son saw it second hand on the giant telly, which he didn’t take his eyes off despite the peloton speeding by every lap)!

I got some pictures just before the start and during one of the breakaways (the Geoffroy Lequatre one) which I’ve posted on the right hand side of this page.

We had a great day out. My son described it thus to my wife:

Wife: “Hi Arun, how was your day then?”
Arun: “Great”
Wife: “What did you get up to?”
Arun: “Great things”

That’s it! Only topped by the discussion the two of us had on the bus on the way home:

Me: “So Arun, did you enjoy the race?”
Arun: “Yes, it was great. I liked the snacks. Dad, who won?”
Me: “Well, a man called Boassen Hagen won overall, and the sprint today was won by an Italian rider but I can’t remember his name”
Arun: “Probably David Beckham, or something?”
Me: “Yeah, something like that!”

Tomorrow marks a momentous day - I can officially race as a Vet! I think it is fair to say that I will be feeling my age the day after...