Wednesday 1 October 2014

Tour de France - July 2014

The beginning of July saw the Tour de France come to the UK, the first since 2007. Being that British riders had won for the past two years, I thought I would take the chance to go into London to see the race come through the streets and cheer on our British riders! The race was Stage 3 of the tour, with the riders cycling from Cambridge to London, with the finish line being on The Mall, near to Buckingham Palace. 

My friend Kirsty and I chose to view the race on the Victoria Embankment, near to the Golden Jubilee and Hungerford Bridges. Kirsty arrived early to get us a good spot and I followed at around half two. Our spot gave us a view of them coming under the bridge and also towards the Houses of Parliament! Crowds were not too bad and slowly swelled leading up to the riders coming past, with hoards of people standing on the bridges! 

Despite our best efforts to figure out when they would turn, with someone following the race on the phone app and us trying to guess if it the last cars had past, the riders caught us by surprise, speeding past us. We cheered loudly and took photos, but we had no way of knowing who was who or who was leading! We held out right until the last riders, giving them a big cheer of encouragement. We even cheered for cyclists who were not part of the race, but were allowed to follow it on the condition they did so after the race had completely past. 

We got the news shortly after the last rider had past that there had been a crash just up the road from us, on the turn onto Parliament Square and by the time we went to leave, the race had finished! That absolutely amazed me! Definitely was an amazing experience!

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