Xander Vanderpoel? Apparently?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
Tour of Britain
(56 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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Great fun and sense of occasion at the finish in Holyrood Park. Good crowd, lots of enthusiasm. Cavendish high fiving the fans as he rode slowly back up to the team area from the finish line.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted 3 years ago #
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we had fun! saw a few CCE'ers; managed not to see others!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Spotted myself in Chdot's video.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I must admit I was less than complimentary (in private emails to Audax HQ rather than publicaly) about having to rearrange my Audax event for the ToB, due to road closures however I’m having a big slice of humble pie with my breakfast this morning, it was great to see the public out supporting something to do with cycling for a change and it also went past my front door. Eenkhoorn gifting his water bottle to a young fan as they passed the Loanhead turn-off on the A768 was a touch of pure class too.
So yes, hope to see the ToB back here someday
Posted 3 years ago # -
I was less impressed when i heard that the kid is a 'brand ambassador'. felt a bit more of a gimmick than a lovely race encounter. but anyway, they've apparently brought him up to Aberdeen today.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Oh really? Didn’t spot that!
Posted 3 years ago # -
i heard that the kid is a 'brand ambassador'
I noted the kid's rather impressive dedication to the cause, with his fancy sunglasses and SIDI shoes. I'm not sure I'd even graduated to mountain bike toe clips when I was that age, when bikes were fun transport, to be ridden to your friend's house, then down steep muddy slopes and jumped off tree roots and things.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I got distracted throughout by the awful state of the roads compared to what I'd seen on TdF and Vuelta...
Posted 3 years ago # -
Brilliant sprint finish today in Aberdeen. Wonderful seeing the riders barrelling through the Scottish countryside too. Overall it's great that the final two stages were in Scotland. Good to see so many fans turn out along the route too.
Tour Of Britain still one of the second division races but nice to see some bigger names in amongst the more junior riders. Let's hope it continues on a stable organisational footing and comes back to Edinburgh in some form in years to come.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Starts in Aberdeen next year and ends Isle of Wight.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@gembo, aye so I saw. Rest of the route a bit nebulous however.
"Exact race dates will be confirmed by the UCI, cycling’s governing body, in Autumn 2021."
Should know by December then?
Posted 3 years ago # -
The wee ambassador has a jumbo Visma kit now. Should move on now I think? Or else every girl and boy will be cycling the pavements next to the races.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Apparently there was a crash in the main peloton in the last 3km of the Edinburgh stage.
I went to watch and ended up on the Lasswade Road, just opposite Liberton Hospital. Decided not to go to Holyrood Park as it would be busy and I wanted to go out for a ride myself afterwards.
It was very interesting seeing the rolling road closures being run. There was a taxi driver coming out of town, I don't know where he had come from, but a policeman on a motorbike stopped him and told him to go into Liberton Hospital. So he drove into the car park and turned round and tried to drive out again, and another police motorcyclist came and stopped him. Then every time a police motorcyclist came along, they would stop in front of him to make sure he didn't move! I think he got the message...
Further down the hill from me Gracemount Avenue was getting similar treatment; even so, a couple of times when it appeared that the road "should" be open again, someone drove out - only to be stopped by another policeman. I guess if you have no idea what is going on your journey is more important that a road being closed for no apparent reason... at one of those points another taxi and a car were driven down the road and a motorbike policeman made them go into the hospital car park too.
I think all was fine between the break and the main peloton, and then there were a couple of other groups following - but after that when there were stragglers coming through there were quite big gaps where nothing was happening. At least one driver came out of Gracemount Avenue, pulled a u-turn in the main road and disappeared back down Gracemount Avenue again.
Then everything seemed to be over but I could hear the chap with the flag and whistle on the traffic island asking "Where's the Broom Wagon?" over his radio - and after I'd packed up my flag and cowbell and cycled off the tail of the race came down the road with one poor lone cyclist in front of it.
Posted 3 years ago # -
@fimm, I was watching from Lasswade Road, and the driver of a red Range Rover on Gilmerton Station Road was equally confused/impatient/desperate when most of the cars following the peloton seemed to have passed. The driver was a bit cautious but had only managed to drive about 20 yards before he was stopped by the next police motorbike rider, who gave him a right talking to. The driver eventually had to reverse back into GSR after two more motorbike police nearly threw the book at him. The last competitor really did look tired out.
In fairness, there wasn't a very obvious "all clear" signal.
Posted 3 years ago # -
“there wasn't a very obvious "all clear" signal”
Very true.
We were up at the roundabouts behind Pollock Halls.
After the bunch there were several groups, and (seemed like) an even bigger gap to the lone rider.
Even then, there was no obvious ‘this really is the end of the race’.
Probably need a big van with ‘thanks for waiting and watching, be safe out there’.
Or something.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago # -
Probably need a big van with ‘thanks for waiting and watching, be safe out there’.
My kids were disappointed by the lack of a real broom wagon, with brooms fixed to the back.
Posted 3 years ago # -
That would be a good practical and PR image.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted 3 years ago # -
Yes, I think the Tour de France has a van with an actual broom attached to it.
When I saw the back of the race on Saturday, it was then obvious that that was the back of the race, and I was not surprised, because I hadn't seen anything that was obviously the back of the race/race convoy up till that point. BUT, if you know nothing about bike races, or even if you know a bit but have never seen one live before, then you may not realise how spread out the race can get. I've only ever seen the ToB going up Redstone Rigg before, and at that point there's a break, then a gap, then, the peloton and the convoy, and that's it. This time we were right at the end of the race so of course there were a number of groups plus the stragglers.Posted 3 years ago # -
The final rider came in about 20 minutes down after a long gap. I assume he had an issue somewhere on the route.
We headed north to visit my mum and watch the Aboyne sprint and Queens View climb on Saturday. Watching mid race is a very different experience to the stage end, there is a staggering number of vehicles involved. Ranging from the large number of outriders operating the road closures right through to the broom wagon at the back. There is even an AA van presumably to help out if any of the cars have an issue (puncture).
Watching the motorcyclists was interesting as they operate a relay. As a rider approaches a junction the rider in front leaves.
Posted 3 years ago #
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