Cycling - the Tour of Britain

Having enjoyed the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España over the past couple of months, courtesy of the great British Eurosport television coverage, this week I attended my first live cycling event - a stage of the Tour of Britain.

I've seen live road cycling events before but this was the first time I've gone out of my way to attend one. I'd been looking forward to the event for a couple of months and, despite only seeing the race competitors for about 20 seconds, I really enjoyed the experience.

I'd not previously given much thought about the logistics of staging a road cycling race but, having had a glimpse of just some of the organisation required I've now got huge respect for the various bodies that contribute, usually without acknowledgement, to the event.

Unlike the Tour de France, where course roads are often closed on the day of the race, the Tour of Britain operates what's known as 'the bubble'. The bubble is, in effect, a rolling road block that surrounds the cyclists, race officials' vehicles and the multitude of team support vehicles, as they make their way from start to finish.

Through the excellent highlight programmes on ITV4 this week I understand something like more than 30 police motorcycle riders 'manage' the route, operating a kind of relay system ensuring that road junctions along the route are clear ahead of the arrival of the Tour. These officers, drawn from different regional forces, stay with the Tour for its duration and work in conjunction with a similar number of race marshalls on motorcycles.

About 20 minutes before the cyclists arrival we got our first glimpse of the bubble with the arrival of the first motorcycles. Minutes later came the Tour officials and organisers vehicles who, via their public address system, thanked the public for turning out in support of the Tour: a nice touch I thought.

Next, and giving us an indication that the cyclists weren't too far away, came a couple of the competing team support vehicles before we caught our first glimpse of the cyclists themselves. A breakaway of escapees, perhaps 4 or 5 riders, shot past and disappeared up the road - blink and you'd have missed them!

A couple of minutes later and the main group of around 100 riders came into sight, accompanied of course by motorcycle outriders, Tour officials and team support cars. Despite having watched a lot (too much my patient wife would say!) of cycling in the past few months I was surprised just how much noise the pelaton made. Whether it was the rapid turning of pedals, the slick racing tyres running over the rough road surface or the morning breeze whipping through the wheels I don't know, but 100 or so cyclists travelling at around 35km per hour generates a low hum or buzzing noise that I just wasn't expecting.

No sooner had I clicked my camera two or three times then the riders had passed - pursued at high speed by vehicles carrying their various Directeur Sportif's, team mechanics, race Commissaire's, an ambulance, more motorcycles ...

As I walked back to work I came across my souvenir of the day: a discarded bidon - a water bottle to you and I - from a Team Barloworld rider. Ahead of the day I'd secretly hoped I might collect one so now my day was complete!

As is the case with so many events - not just sport - the best view is often offered by television rather than at the event itself. However, for pure excitement, atmosphere and a sense of occasion you just can't beat being there: I've always known this of course but it's never been clearer to me than it was this week as I stood by the roadside watching the Tour of Britain.