Finally this weekend, the Tour de France arrived in London.
I love cycling, and I love the Tour, which has become an important part of my summer of sport for many years now starting when Channel 4 used to cover it. Channel 4 long gave up on showing much over the summer except reality trash. So we’re still in that unlikely state of affairs where ITV carries the mantle with the continued exceptional commentary of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin.
An aside, there was a good piece about Sunset + Vine’s coverage of the Tour in this week’s broadcast magazine, written by Brian Venner who has been working on the race for twenty years now. They have fifteen people in France and another fifteen in the UK. And between them, reporters Matt Rendell and Ned Boulting speak nine languages, which is better than Katie Derham who struggled when Vinokourov answered her English language question in French at the presentation on Friday.
But for me, the commentaries were something to catch later, as I was going to hit the course. Aside from managing to forget to bring my large memory card for my camera (I stopped by John Lewis to right this wrong), I was soon on the course.

It struck me that most people would place themselves near the major sights of the city. And wandering down from Green Park to Buckingham Palace, revealed that to be very much the case. I didn’t want to watch the race from behind six other people, so I headed out towards Hyde Park, and in particular, The Serpentine. Although I was planning on taking plenty of photos, it was the cyclists I was looking to see, not necessarily the sights of London.
Just an aside to say that the people running the concession stands were some of the most stupid people I’ve ever met in a position that requires them to collect money. There was no issue with communication – they were from Birmingham rather than Boulogne – but they were clueless, and I had to look elsewhere for a t-shirt.

But otherwise, the organisation was exceptional, with barriers everywhere, a people’s village in Hyde Park, and plenty of big screens scattered around the course. I’d specifically avoided arriving by bike because I wasn’t sure where I could leave it and I was planning to move around a bit.
In the end I needn’t have worried, with massive bike parks in Green Park and Hyde Park – if only they were there all the time.

(Yet another aside – I didn’t mention that I got a free bike from Orange on Wednesday did I? Orange is an official sponsor, and on Tuesday night I read that on Wednesday morning, Orange would give 500 mountain bikes away at Covent Garden. I decided that if I got up early I’d see what the queue was like. Arriving at around 7.30am I found a decently long queue and saw the bikes all being laid out. I reckoned that there were a maximum of 300 people in front of me, so I got in the queue. In the event, there were actually about 495 people in front of me. Nonetheless, Chris Hoy handed me a bike. Since Orange is French owned, I was hopeful that the bikes might be some good. They weren’t really. Suspension on a cheap bike is just something to make the handlebars move when you break heavily. And the bike was tiny. I felt like I was riding a BMX as I took it into work. Still, I’ve got a spare bike for any small people who visit.)

I found a really good spot where the road widened, affording good views as riders came around the corner. As a consequence, I ended up with pictures of all the riders. You can see the set here.

On Sunday, I traveled down to Kent to my brother’s home village, where we waited in the sun for the caravan to again appear, and swiftly followed by the bike riders.

We got a bigger haul of tour freebies this time around including copious Skoda hats, some Haribo sweets, and a Kent t-shirt.

There was a breakaway group through first, which included David Millar amongst its number. I tried to explain as much to all and sundry who were suffering a lack of information. BBC Radio Kent was “covering” the race, but nobody at the studio seemed to have tuned into ITV4’s coverage, so we were left fairly much in the dark about what was going on. Instead, we were left with lots of interviews with people who had turned out to watch, regardless of whether or not they actually knew what they were seeing.

When the peleton finally arrived, it swept through in a few seconds, and that was it. I was burnt more than every, although I did at least have a hat to keep the sun off my head this time.

After watching more of the action on TV, I headed off home and Five Live gave live coverage of Robbie McEwan’s incredible victory.
More photos from Stage 1 can be found here.
A good weekend. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another thirteen years before the the Tour returns again.