The Aviva Tour of Britain has been taking place for a week and I had the opportunity thanks to a lovely friend, Laura, to be able to ride the final stage, stage 8, before the pros hit the course.
I have a new gadget, the Garmin Edge 1000, and so yesterday me and him indoors got our bike stuff ready and drove into London with this little gadget ready to record my ride.
We both work in London and don’t live that far away and so the fact that it took us 6.5 miles to make the 2 mile journey from where we parked, and even when we reached St James’s park we couldn’t find the start, was the not the best beginning but we got there in the end and queued with 498 other people who were also riding the stage before the pros.
It was a slow start, as is to be expected when you have 500 people starting together, but once people found a space and everyone could ride at their pace it soon spaced out and we were able to enjoy the fact that the roads we are used to seeing full of cars were empty aside from the cyclists.
The streets were lined with people who had come to watch us ride. They had all come out to see me, Lisa aka Fat Girl Fit, cycle around the streets of London!! Ok so they were not really there for me they were there for the pros but as we cycled past they were cheering and banging the advertising boards that lined the route and it is an amazing feeling.
As usual our club kit being bright yellow and pink attracted attention immediately and within metres of the start line we already had two groups shouting ‘come on Romford’, which continued as we cycled laps around the route.
The start was on a gradual incline and so every time we passed it (and our speed went down) we passed the same group who carried on cheering ‘Romford’ – thank you to whoever you were it was much appreciated! On our third lap him indoors wanted to take advantage and went for it up the hill and as I trailed behind the same group cheered again but this time were saying ‘go on girl catch him up’. I can’t catch him up without him slowing but it still made me smile.
We were allowed to ride the route for 45 minutes and we managed four laps in total and thoroughly enjoyed every minute! Every minute on the closed road course that is – the ride there on the open, and busy, London roads was not something that I can say I enjoyed and it was definitely a squeaky bum moment for me!
When we finished we took a walk around the pro team vans to see if we could catch a glimpse of some of the riders and although we hung around unfortunately we didn’t manage to see anyone.
It wasn’t the longest ride and it was laps, which is generally not my favourite though the experience was amazing and if i could have the chance again I would jump (on my bike) at it!
Weigh in this week saw a 1lb gain but thats ok I shall try my best to get that of for next week – onwards and upwards!
Leave a Reply