Fans in the Gorge
When I got there, I rode up the Gorge until I had to stop (or else fall off) and it was still packed with fans. It was a good half-hour before the race would pass by, but already almost every flattish piece of land by the road had either a spectator or a bicycle on it. I watched twitter for race news, posted an update @mjray, then put the phone away as the green-fronted police bikes came through just ahead of the racers. I tried videoing the race, but it’s only the second outing for the handlebarcam and I seem to have deleted the recording before hooking it up to the laptop. Thankfully, the itv4 coverage (repeated 13:00) is pretty good. (My back is on TV! Ahem.)
Now, today (Saturday) I will be mostly doing the work scheduled for Friday, but it was still worth it. Go along if you get the chance: Suffolk and Norfolk today, Westminster tomorrow. I suggested it to @enterprisehub’s #coopsweekend because the Rabobank team are doing well.
Heh.
Many years ago I rode most Sundays with the Bath CTC. Cheddar Gorge was somewhere we made efforts to avoid, because riding up such a heavily-trafficked hill and breathing the fumes wasn’t anyone’s idea of a good day out.
I guess they must’ve closed it to the regular polluters?
Actually, it was only closed when the race was actually passing (from the green-fronted police bikes until the broom wagon) but you’d need to be a special sort of crazy to ignore all the signs, the police, the traffic cones, the near-Critical-Mass levels of bicycles and still drive up it yesterday lunchtime. Mostly it was White Van Mans and a few cars blindly following satnavs, but bicycles outnumbered motors by 20-to-1 or more and there was almost no overtaking (even bike-overtaking-bike was tricky), so the motors weren’t working hard and most weren’t putting out many fumes as far as I could smell.
I think I can guess how much fun it usually isn’t. If I want to go up to Charterhouse, I’d go up through Shipham because it’s much quieter and also avoids dropping down to Cheddar village before starting the climb.