Went to watch the Womens tour today

[Celtic Dragon]

Have to say it was really quite good! I'd forgotten how close they come to the barriers since I photographed the London time trials of the TDF a few years ago. Having that many cyclists in a peleton going past your head is actually quite unnerving.

For a first time event with little publicity, the finish was very well supported in Welwyn and the final straight was 2 - 3 people deep against the barriers for the last 200m sprint, which left no room for pan shots for photographers. Thanks to the course design, spectators did get to see a bunch sprint finish. What struck me was how dinky most of these girls are! Laura can't be any more than 5 foot nothing!

If its held again, and I hope it is, its well worth a couple of hours to go and watch.


A few of the pics.

Sprint finish


Very slender lead


Then it rained


Laura



My Favorite from the day


The rest of the photos are here

Edited by Celtic Dragon on Saturday 10th May 18:36

[TheLemming]

Great finish to watch :-)
Think I was about 20ft to your left lol

Damn the winds were nasty on the ride home though

[marmitemania]

I to went to the tour. It started in my home county not more than 10 miles from my home, but I was away on holiday so missed the start at oundle. But I made it to Cheshunt and the welwyn finish. I was pleasantly surprised by how approachable the girls were. I took my little girl and she was invited into the Matrix vulpine coach, she was given several bottles by the teams, a cap and pictures, we also got to speak and have photo's taken with all the top riders ( I need a new castelli cap now as my old one is full of autographs) I also had my MG Maxifuel jersey signed by Hannah. It was a fantastic day, I cant help but think it would be very different at the mens tour or the Tour de france I don't think we would have got near anyone let alone an autograph, I think the men are a bit up themselves for that sort of thing.

[fausTVR]

I watched them go though Willian village near Letchworth and then Old Welwyn High street. Must have been a tough day's ride in that wind, there were many stragglers long after the peloton. Impressive stuff.

[Celtic Dragon]

fausTVR, if my memory serves me correctly, the broom wagon was 14 minutes behind Vos, the last rider was about 30 seconds infront of the broom wagon.

marmitemania I tried to find the other team coaches to get pics but only found Wiggle. If they do it again, I will have to get autographs, I didn't this time, I just took pics and let kids in front of me in the queue as it meant more to them.

I agree with what you say about the mens tour, it would have been night on impossibe to get autographs and meet and greets. For 1 family, Ned went autograph hunting for them as the girls were in the press area.

[yellowjack]

Sadly, I had to make do with watching the race on the telly. I enjoyed the coverage, though. Great to see the women's race starting up, even better to see it getting coverage on the box. Hopefully it'll become a strong presence on the calendar, and go from strength to strength.

My only complaint was that it was quite a short tour, and very much concentrated in one area of the country. Would be great to see it continue, and to spread to different parts of Britain a bit more.

[marmitemania]

Celtic Dragon said:

fausTVR, if my memory serves me correctly, the broom wagon was 14 minutes behind Vos, the last rider was about 30 seconds infront of the broom wagon.

marmitemania I tried to find the other team coaches to get pics but only found Wiggle. If they do it again, I will have to get autographs, I didn't this time, I just took pics and let kids in front of me in the queue as it meant more to them.

I agree with what you say about the mens tour, it would have been night on impossibe to get autographs and meet and greets. For 1 family, Ned went autograph hunting for them as the girls were in the press area.

Shame you didn't get any autographs Celtic dragon. We did not have to que to get any autographs as we got there early and there was not really anyone else about. The Matrix vulpine team invited my little girl Poppy into their motorhome and even posed for a picture with her, that has made it onto the Womens tour Twitter page and Matrix own twitter feed.


We were also given bottles by the teams, Lululemon, Untied healthcare, Orica and Astana.

Edited by marmitemania on Sunday 11th May 13:16

[Celtic Dragon]

To be fair, apart from Laura and Lizzie, I didn't know who was who to ask for autographs! I'm an ex paparazzi, and I resorted to the adage "if their in team strips, shoot, you can always delete"

Now I find I'm looking at second hand Allez's and seeing if I sell my Oakley Julietts and the Carrera Zelos (naff road bike I picked up cheap when I tried to quit smoking) I have here will make up the bulk of the price.

I see quite a few roadgangs around at the weekend so might try and find out who they belong to, I know 1 is a local tri club and my sports therapist will be happier with me riding road than MTB. Shes been trying to convert me for a while!

Edited by Celtic Dragon on Sunday 11th May 16:33

[marmitemania]

See if your local local bike shop does a shop ride, our LBS does and its great we have a good group of around 60 or more riders and we have three different cats for different levels of riders the top cat me and my brother in law ride averages around 21 to 22 MPH over 35 to 40 miles usually with around 2500 to 3500 feet of climbing.

[Rich_W]

Overall the race has been good. Though Armistead appears to be trying to win it at every point and she's too eager and doing her overall no good. The spectator crowds have been really big which is great.

Few things have made me cringe though.

• The traffic control has been a bit shoddy. Yesterdays neutralisation was never really explained and whilst the breakaway weren't that far ahead, it just seems wrong to not give them the time back. We've seen it at other races.

• Also the roads aren't exactly free from badly parked cars. Gotten a bit narrow in places.

• There's also been moving obstacles. The mobility scooter crossing the road in front of the peloton. There was also a woman on a bike riding down the gutter towards the peloton on day 2. Those are just the ones that have made the TV show.

• But worst have been the motorcycles. Whether that's marshals or TV. They've been getting in the way all week. Trying to force through the bunch. Constantly beeping each other out the way. None more so than yesterdays final turn before the sprint when several riders had to alter their line because the TV rider in an effort to get the perfect shot had taken the same line through he corner when they should have been 20metres ahead.

Anyway. Why is Emma Trott retiring? She's only 24?

[Celtic Dragon]

Yesterdays neutralization was caused by an RTA and paramedics were treating a casuality in the road or so I'm told by a police friend of mine. Agreed the break away should have got the time back though, and on the bikes getting in the way of the riders.

[y2blade]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing them

[Rich_W]

Celtic Dragon said:

Yesterdays neutralization was caused by an RTA and paramedics were treating a casuality in the road or so I'm told by a police friend of mine. Agreed the break away should have got the time back though, and on the bikes getting in the way of the riders.

Yeah we figured something like that. But Hugh "shout the wrong name, sound vaguely sexist at times" Porter and Brian "No drugs at USPostal when I was there and it's coincidence JTL got done whilst on my team" Smith, are right up there with Carlton Kirby in terms of inability to communicate to the viewer.

[timbob]

The tour went through my village on Thursday - we had a sprint finish in Turvey, and down the hill and round the next corner, the race went literally past my front door as it joined the main A road to head towards Bedford.

Gutted to be stuck at work all day My house didn't quite make it into TV (hidden behind next door's place!)

[Mark83]

A few of us followed it. We watched them cycle up Port Hill in Hertford then we cut across to Digswell Hill and watched them again, this time with a pint in hand from the pub at the top of climb.

It was good to the crowds out to support and it was lovely weather... until it finished. I then cycled from Welwyn to Ware in the torrential rain.

Thanks for sharing your photos.

[Celtic Dragon]

Going to sound like a big girls blouse now but I don't care.

Looking back at the photos and watching the tv, the lululemon kit is the prettiest on the tour. The rest (and mens for that matter) just look like mobile advertising hordings.

[AyBee]

Rich_W said:

Overall the race has been good. Though Armistead appears to be trying to win it at every point and she's too eager and doing her overall no good.

I only saw bits here and there on the telly but it struck me like everyone in the peloton was eager to break off, attacks were coming all over the place and in number and the peloton didn't seem to be very organised...just me?

[doolie]

I rode across to take a look on Stage 1 near Althorp. It's great to see this sort of race appearing, we don't get a look in where I live for the Mens Tour. Not having attended this sort of race for many year, surprised just how many Police Bikes there were, constant stream of them preceding the riders.

That disability scooter driver was nuts, could have been a big crash.

[thiscocks]

great pics

[Celtic Dragon]

Rich_W said:

Yeah we figured something like that. But Hugh "shout the wrong name, sound vaguely sexist at times" Porter and Brian "No drugs at USPostal when I was there and it's coincidence JTL got done whilst on my team" Smith, are right up there with Carlton Kirby in terms of inability to communicate to the viewer.

In the local rag tonight there's a photo of the peleton cycling past the wreckage of a motorbike. With a caption congratulating the ambulance crews on clearing the incident before the ride got to them.