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British Cyclosportive

On Sunday the 7th July the Tour de France will start her in old Blighty; the prologue taking place around London with Stage 1 on Sunday starting in London and heading 190km down to Canterbury.

Last Sunday was the turn of the dedicated, serious or down right sucidical cyclists out there in the world. The British Cyclosportive was the chance for every day cyclists to have a go at the very same stage the pro will tackle seven days later.
Spaces on this event are limited to only 5,000 riders but Viv and I applied back in February and had secured our places.

It was a very early start, we needed to sign on in Greenwich Park before 6 in the morning for a start time of 6:30. This meant that we needed to leave Viv’s house at 4 in the morning to ensure we got to the big smoke in time.
The good news is that at this time in the morning the roads are pretty much our own, meaning we could make really good time; despite the Dartford bridge being closed and not being able to get on the A2 to get into London!

After some expert map reading we arrived, only to park next a car of riders from Ipswich!
We walked into the park to find the registration tent and sign on. Upon arrival we were given a package containing a promotional tee, some literature and a transponder for our bikes.
This clever device sits on your front wheel and will acrruately measure the times we set.
Enough of this time for a cup of tea and possibly a bacon sandwich.

After fueling ourselves we finally got our bikes ready and put some spare clothes on a transport lorry to be delivered to the finish line awaiting our arrival.
By this time they had started sending riders off; the plan is to send of around 40 riders every minute from 6 – 8:30. We finally hit the start line at around 6:40, making us about 1400 in the field. When the count down finished we were off. There was a quick tour of the park and then we finally made it out onto the main roads and on our journey down into Kent to to Canterbury.
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