An email came through at Sport magazine where I was working at the time. Would any of us like to ride in a support car for one leg of the 2011 Tour of Britain cycle race?
All eyes in the office turned to me. ‘Defo,’ say I.
I take a look at the schedule and pick the longest route – 124 miles from Bury St Edmunds to Sandringham – with the idea being I’d make the make the most of the opportunity. It was a looooong day.
Following the cyclists at bicycle pace – a rapid bicycle pace but an engineless pace nevertheless – takes a while. I think it was five hours I spent in the car.
On your bike
I took loads of photos, chatted to the Tour of Britain driver about many an indiscretion over various races around the world at which he’d worked.
I also chatted to the PR guy from the company who’d sent the email to the magazine in the first place who was in the back seat.
Below is a vlog of the day from my photographer’s eye view of the 2011 Tour of Britain. I’d give you more of a heads up about the cyclists but quite honestly I had no idea what was happening.
At day’s end, the PR boys headed off in a car back to London, pretty much going past where I lived. Despite a spare seat they opted to drop me at a local train station where I sat alone for an hour waiting for a Sunday-schedule train.
Couldn’t help but think it would have been quicker by bike…
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