Cycling UK Forum

Did my stewarding bit along with a couple of others (couple of thousand, that is) on stage 1. Apart from the early start - 6.00 am at Charlton Athletic, football ground, it was quite good fun which seemed mainly to involve preventing kamikaze children and adults upsetting the race and answering the odd query.

My reward, watching the cream of cycling go by; a few freebies including a cap, tee shirt and tabbard that aren't generally available to the public and a medal complete with yellow ribbon. But seeing David Millar in the lead when he passed my 'patch' was reward enough.

As for the Prologue - the winning ride was absolute magic and appreciated by all who watched it. Yes we cheered the British riders, but we also cheered everyone else. The atmosphere on both days was like a carnival and everyone, except the odd motorist who complained to the police about road closures enjoyed themselves enormously.

Oh and one last freebie, one of the thousands of notices that adorned lamp posts on the route, of no parking or else, now adorns a wall in my house - try getting one of those on e-bay!

Glad you enjoyed it Mrs T

The Tour was great, the seven members of our Cycling Club who went including myself had a great time, from walking around the Westminster & Knightsbridge area on Friday evening to cycling to the Prologue on Saturday Morning (Leading the motorised procession at one point on the way along Embankment by accident !!!), watching the Prologue outside Buckingham Palace, finding ourselves within the "passes only" section amongst Millar and Rogers, and cycling to Farthing Common to watch stage 1 on Sunday....
Many thanks to all the organisers & helpers and Ken Livingstone !

I had posted this (below) on in the Tea Shop on Sunday, but I will add to this thread. Glad someone else is acknowledging the positive stance that Ken L took. What lousy weather they had today!


I think the whole event has been fantastic! I was in London on Saturday and the buzz was great. Super organisation and super views along route, big screen TVs were very good as well to keep you informed what was happening overall. Amazing atmosphere as a very cosmopolitan crowd enjoyed the event. Once Pereiro went past my vantage point (just by crossing point by Waterloo Tube) I took a very short/quick walk to Parliament Square to join the crowd (and peace protestors) all watching the big screen. Atmosphere was great and everyone getting excited with Phil L and Paul S commentary and then spontaneous applause and cheering at the big screen as Cancellara smashed Kloden’s time – brilliant moment! Henman Hill – pah!! Also, loads of cyclists around and really good to see so many young people on cycles – perhaps it might just inspire more people to take up cycling.

Most ridiculous sight was the parking tickets issued to the tour entourage outside the RAC building!

Missed today’s stage (due to an offer I can’t refuse!) but caught up with TV highlights at 7pm and was blown away by the support along the route. All credit to David Millar for ‘giving it a go’ in front of a home crowd, I’m sure he will be having a smile with the Maillot à Pois – what next, the Maillot Vert!

And of course, we ought to say ‘well done Ken Livingstone’, I think, as no matter what some may think of him, he has been fully supportive of Le Tour and the other associated cycling events. At least for a couple of days cyclists ruled in London!

And of course, well done Mrs T, particularly as it can be a real lottery as to what you might end doing or where you will be positioned. Being a marshal/volunteer can be a thankless task at times, but you can now say you had a part to play in the biggest sporting event in the World!

We did thank Ken Livingstone personally - as he walked past us to the start of the Prologue my clubmate shouted "Well Done Ken !"

I wasn't far from you Tandemist. We were by the 400m sign near the finish on the Mall.

After the start we walked along The Mall past you to get to the bend at the left of the front of Buckingham Palace, which was such a good veiwpoint we stayed there until the Prologue finished.
When we rode back over Tower Bridge northwards on the way back to Ilford there was a group of cyclists, maybe a CTC section ?, cycling southwards over the bridge.

Watched an interesting interaction with some twit on a bike who was wearing a shirt saying CTC approved cycling instructor, or something similar and a copper near waterloo bridge. There was a jcb shifting big blocks they'd used to close roads etc, and the copper told the small group to wait. they ignored him and he got rather angry about it. I felt he was within his rights to do so, after all if instructed by a police officer to stop, you do so until he says you can move. Apparently, they thought differently.

Wasn't us M'Lord !
Most of the Police we met over the weekend were great, all except one really who insisted we take a different road after Stage 1 had finished, despite the fact that several other Policemen had let us continue along the same closed road until we got as far as him.

I had a great time watching in London on friday and in rochester on Sunday however the only thing i thought was the police a bit over the top but i guess with the terrorist threat etc understandable.

I only saw the Police carrying sub-machine guns in London

And I noticed the Gendarmerie had been dissarmed !
A repeat of 1066 was threfore avoided

One assumes that everyone else is aware of the TDF tracker, provided by Ubilabs here - it gets real time biometric and positional data from the cyclists; you can zoom in and select your favourite competitor, then have the googlemap scroll to follow his progress.

BenM

Wow !