Dave
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Post by Dave on Sept 18, 2009 20:21:44 GMT
Not really been a cycle fan as such, but I enjoyed watching the local news last night as the latest leg of this race ended in Bideford. I was fully aware that my route on Friday was going to take me on roads that were being used for the next stage, Hatherleigh to Yeovil. I don’t know why Hatherleigh was the starting place; it is a bit of a drive from where the last stage finished Having no real need to go from Okehampton to Holsworthy, I took the road from Okehampton to Hatherleigh as I also wanted to go and check out how the building of the fort bonfire at Torrington, was coming on. It was around 7.30am when I drove through Hatherleigh and not a lot was going on, but then the race was not starting from there until 9.30am. I then went on to Torrington and went to the bonfire site, I did not take any pictures, as not a great deal more has been done since I was there four weeks ago, it’s a good job they still have a year left to finish it. So on to Bideford and I was expecting to see plenty of signs that the last leg of the race had finished there the night before, I saw lots on the TV news, finishing lines, flags etc, but it was all gone and there was not one sign to show anything had happened there at all. I then went on to Barnstaple, South Molton and knew if I was going to have any problems they might start in Tiverton. I drove off the A361 and up past Tiverton Castle heading for Travis Perkins, soon I saw barriers had been put on all the paths and two policemen on every road junction, waiting to close the roads. It was only just after 10.30am and the race was due into Tiverton at 11.45am, in the hire shop at Travis was a man in a suit who was to do with the race, he was looking to get a few more barriers, I was soon talking with him and learned a lot about the race, all very interesting. The boss man at Travis told me the road from Bickleigh to Crediton would be closed and I would not be able to use it, I drove that way anyway as I planned to miss out Crediton and just head for Exeter. When I go to Bickleigh there were loads of people waiting there for the race to pass, most had cameras, I looked to my right and saw the road I wanted was not closed.I turned into it past the Fisherman’s Cott a place only the rich like StuartB can eat in. I went really slowly up the big hill. Not knowing what I might find around ever corner I came upon. At every open space or grass bank, people were gathered; I had that feeling you get when you drive down a main street where everyone is waiting for the carnival to arrive. I drove within two miles of Crediton, when I saw the first of over 30 police motorbikes that went past me in the end, I knew the race was not far away and as luck would have it, there was a sort of parking place of the road. So I parked there and got out the van with my camera phone. I looked to my left across the road and could see a very old farmer parking his tractor close to the edge of his field, so he could also watch the race go by looking over the hedge. He shouted out a few things to me and before I knew it, he was out of his tractor and standing by the front of my van with me. I guess he was at least 75 years old and was a true Devon man. “Look he said up there” pointing high up to the top of a field on our right, “that’s my friend up there” from where I was looking he looked about an inch tall, “are you sure that’s not a scarecrow” I joked. I started talking some pictures of the motorbikes as they went past and then a disaster happened, my phones battery went dead, I was not happy as I was unable to get any shots of the race. Still it was so great to see the riders go past and all the cars that follow them with spare bikes etc. There must have been about 30 cars in total, plus two ambulances an even an AA man, well its best to be prepared I suppose.      |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2009 6:42:59 GMT
I don’t know why Hatherleigh was the starting place; it is a bit of a drive from where the last stage finished. None of the stages link together because there aren't enough days allocated to the race for it to be a true Tour of Britain. Stage 5 finished in Stoke-on-Trent, for example, and stage 6 started in Frome. Bideford to Hatherleigh was actually one of the shortest "transfers". Devon County Council had a big involvement in the SW sections and probably had a say in selecting Hatherleigh as the start of the stage. There are various regeneration projects in that area with cycle tourism being promoted as new cycle paths open up. |
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merse
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Post by merse on Sept 19, 2009 8:38:49 GMT
I don’t know why Hatherleigh was the starting place; it is a bit of a drive from where the last stage finished. Devon County Council had a big involvement in the SW sections and probably had a say in selecting Hatherleigh as the start of the stage. There are various regeneration projects in that area with cycle tourism being promoted as new cycle paths open up.  In cycle racing "Tours" are never seamless due to the overriding and practical logistics of "Start" and "Finish" venues being able to put up resources and physically cope with the disruption, putting out of spectactor and team/mechanical facilities, press, sponsors villages etc etc. In the Tour de France, towns actually bid against one another for the privilege of hosting "la Grand Boucle".......................in the UK it's not seen as quite so prestigiuos, but the more enlightened councils (as Barty points out) are being more pro-active. Today the Tour of Britain finishes in London which has for years seen such hosting as a marvellous way to showcase the city on TV and will adopt the same attitude to the Olympics with some of the venues (Horseguards for beach volleyball, Lords for archery, Greenwich Park for equestrianism) providing a stunning backcloth for viewrs the world over. Is not the beautiful Torquay sea front and Marine Drive not missing a trick here, is the dozy old council even aware of such opportunity? Surely, Torquay sea front is more appealing to TV viewers that Huish Park, Yeovil?.........................surely! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2009 9:23:23 GMT
Is not the beautiful Torquay sea front and Marine Drive not missing a trick here, is the dozy old council even aware of such opportunity? Surely, Torquay sea front is more appealing to TV viewers that Huish Park, Yeovil?.........................surely! I'm sure I was once led from primary school to see the Milk Race whizz along Newton Road in the direction of the sea front. Does anyone else remember this? The technical answer to Merse's question is that Devon and Somerset county councils have worked together on these two stages and made sure each was going to start in one county and finish in the other. Perhaps unitary Torbay - which isn't covered by Devon CC - needs to enter some sort of tripartate agreement? Or, better still, make a bid for a prologue stage to be held entirely within the borough? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2009 9:39:59 GMT
If they won't let the Unitary Authority join in then a 'Tour Of Torquay' should have been instigated as competition  To get the locals interested a 'Pedal to Plainmoor' scheme could be introduced as a bit of an incentive to the locals, maybe along similar lines to Port Vale's idea for this afternoon. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/8264267.stm |
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merse
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Post by merse on Sept 19, 2009 9:43:22 GMT
I'm sure I was once led from primary school to see the Milk Race whizz along Newton Road in the direction of the sea front. Does anyone else remember this? I too can remember waiting on the Torquay Road at Milber Shelter for the Milk Race to come by. I can recall it both going into Paignton and out again the next morning! The man we were looking out for was Kingskerswell's Roy Hopkins who rode for the Great Britain team, and we also used to see him regularly out training up and down the Torquay Road no doubt en route to Dartmoor or Haldon Forest to get the "hills into his legs" Do you know that Torbay's "Mr Cycling" , Colin Lewis was a Great Britain team mate on the fateful tour when Tommy Simpson lost his life on Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France and in fact was his room mate that dreadful day? Colin once told me about the desperate loneliness and forlorn feeling of being taken to the nearest SNCF station one Tour after he had failed to make the cut the previous day and finished so far behind the stage winner he was excluded. "Being dumped with a one way rail ticket, my suitcase and no-one else in the middle of nowhere certainly concentrates the mind" I vividly remember him saying.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2009 19:33:35 GMT
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Sept 19, 2010 17:59:30 GMT
I was not expecting to see the Tour Of Britain this year as I did last year as I did not think I would be on any of the roads the race would use. Last year I got a great spot beside the road between Crediton and Bickley and my only disappointed was my phone was low on charge and by the time the racers came by the battery was dead and I got no shots of them at all. When I left Exmouth on Tuesday I noticed a big crowd of people waiting around the roundabout on the Clyst St George roundabout on the A 376 Exmouth road. I had thought about stopping there myself but soon came to the conclusion I would not be able to park my van anywhere nearby and so carried on to see a customer on the Sowton Estate. After I had done what I wanted to do on the Sowton estate I headed off for the Marsh Barton estate and when I got to the lights on the Countess Weir roundabout I noticed to my left a police motorbike rider was approaching to stop the traffic as the race was getting close to the roundabout. I just managed to get through the lights before he blocked off the roundabout and headed down the road and turned into the last side road before the swing bridge and parked the van and walked back to the main road. Soon police bikes were speeding down the road and I guess there could have been as many as 20 or so in total and then racing past me was the leading breakaway group of riders. Next came all the rest followed by car after car with spare bikes on their roofs and unlike last year when I saw it in hilly lanes, this year it all went past me in a flash. So fast in fact I only got chance to take a few pictures on my camera phone, still it’s a great event to see as long as you don’t suffer from blinking or you would miss most of it.      |
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Post by ospelgull on Sept 20, 2010 8:42:58 GMT
On saturday evening the Eurotunnel was packed with loads of cars from different participating teams going from Folkestone to Calais.
No topclass cyclers but 2nd string/upcoming youngsters in this tour. In the 4th stage a Dutchman, Wout Pouls won the stage to Teignmouth and Johnny Hoogerland was crowned "King of the Mountains"!
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Post by aussie on Sept 20, 2010 17:29:59 GMT
I think there are far too many bloody un-taxed cyclists slowing me down or stopping me completely when I`m driving a totally, legally, fully taxed vehicle on the road! When they can be bothered to pay hundreds of pounds every year to build and repair roads then they can ride on them and slow everything down, until then they build their own riding stadia such as veladrome or whatever, they could buy land and build roads to race on like anyone who wants to race a car or a motor bike! What the hell makes them so fecken precious?
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merse
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Post by merse on Sept 20, 2010 17:52:31 GMT
I think there are far too many bloody un-taxed cyclists .................. I think you'll find "cyclists" pay just as much tax as other people in society Aussie, and if you think roads are purely funded from road tax you're as barking as much as you're naive. I am neither a motorist nor a cyclist at the moment due to health issues for the former and the fact that someone nicked me bike and I haven't the money to replace it now that I really need one. However, the roads belong to ALL of us, those of us who ride on buses for instance ~ what do they move around on? When the fire engine comes to your house, what does it arrive on? The ambulance, Postman Pat and the dustcart? You put your rant on the Tour of Britain thread, surely you don't think that road race caused any more traffic disruption than your average road accident between two myopic drivers do you? They use rolling road closures and as soon as the race has whizzed through the roads are open again. Moaning about "un taxed" cyclists? Give us a break sport!  |
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midlandstufc
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Post by midlandstufc on Sept 20, 2010 18:38:40 GMT
Slowing you down Aussie!?
Have a chill pill and look at that geezer pedalling away - not causing pollution, keeping him or herself fit and lessening the burden on the NHS and using a road that was built with them and smaller vehicles in mind.
Yep, they may ignore many road laws from time to time but in their chosen mode of transport they don't kill you if they hit you (well, not as often of course). More power to their calves in my opinion. Idiots abound but I reckon there's less of 'em on a bike than in a 4x4.
p.s. I've just given mine to the tat-man, it was over 30-years old, weighed a ton, with straight handlebars and a back muddie nearly the size of the wheel - a bit embarrassing really ...
I've also got too many scars and too poor reactions to be out on it now anyway - two trees, a stationary vehicle and the tarmac on the road down from the Clent Hills are salutary lessons!
Mind you some of those riders from Stourbridge Cycle Club must be Septugenarians - makes me a little bit humble.
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merse
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Post by merse on Sept 20, 2010 18:58:43 GMT
......................... until then they build their own riding stadia such as veladrome [sic] or whatever, they could buy land and build roads to race on like anyone who wants to race a car or a motor bike! What the hell makes them so fecken precious? My daughter who lives in Kingsteignton tells me of the diificulty being encountered there through NIMBY'S objections to just such a development....................a velodrome for sure and an off highway road racing circuit as well as I understand it. Does anyone have any more detailed information about that? I can think of two (Minet Park, Hayes; and Hogs Hill, Hainault) venues in London where there are off highway cycle racing circuits and at the Hogs Hill venue (built to replace the former Eastway Circuit now buried under the Olympic Park development) there is the BMX and Mountain Bike facility constructed for the 2012 Olympics. Surely Torquay should be bidding to host an iconic Tour of Britain "circuit" stage in and around the harbour and sea front, or at least one of the Sky City Centre Racing Series ~ worth it's weight in gold as "free" publicity to the tourist trade! Torbay does have a sports development officer doesn't it? |
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keyberrygull
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Post by keyberrygull on Sept 20, 2010 20:03:10 GMT
Is not the beautiful Tor quay sea front and Marine Drive not missing a trick here, is the dozy old council even aware of such opportunity? Surely, Tor quay sea front is more appealing to TV viewers that Hui sh Park, Yeovil?.........................surely! I'm sure I was once led from primary school to see the Milk Race whiz along Newton Road in the direction of the sea front. Does anyone else remember this? The technical answer to Merse's question is that Devon and Somerset county councils have worked together on these two stages and made sure each was going to start in one county and finish in the other. Perhaps unitary Tor bay - which isn't covered by Devon CC - needs to enter some sort of tripartate agreement? Or, better still, make a bid for a prologue stage to be held entirely within the borough? What was the year/era Barton? Obviously a long time before a day during the late 70s when I was fog marched to do a similar thing at Newton Abbots war memorial. I doubt if it was the Milk race but what an anti-climax. Waited for half an hour, all over in 30 seconds! Huge dissapointment  An elder brother told me to get used to it |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2010 20:36:55 GMT
What was the year/era Barton? Obviously a long time before a day during the late 70s when I was fog marched to do a similar thing at Newton Abbots war memorial. I was at primary school from 1960 to 1967 and would refine the memory to around 1963-1967. The link below confirms that stages finished in Paignton fairly regularly in those days: www.cyclingarchives.com/wedstrijdfiche.php?wedstrijdid=327 |
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