TdF - Where you watching from?

Pufftmw

More aimed at London people but wondering where might be the best place to watch from, bearing in mind crowds, access & so on. Would be great on the Mall but unless you could be there from stupid o'clock, imagine you'd be hard pressed to see the finish clearly.

Going to leave work early to catch this so ideas?

In France for holidays soon so will try & catch Stage 19 in Bergerac as well.

rubertoe

I work over looking Birdcage walk.....

But I am heading out to Epping/North Weald with my club to watch it. We have several groups heading out to various parts of the course.

asprilla

Pufftmw wrote:

In France for holidays soon so will try & catch Stage 19 in Bergerac as well.

Annoyingly, we are on holiday near Bergerac but we are coming back before the stage there.

vermin

My aunt ...

Harewood House, then wherever I happen to be when it's on Eurosport Player.

Kieran_Burns

Side of road somewhere nr Ripon and then somewhere in Sheffield the next day. How the hell I'm going to get from Ripon to Sheffield I have *no* idea. It could involve every back lane I'm told about.

FoldingJoe

Driving up in the van with a couple of mates tomorrow to Sheffield. Staying in a campsite there and doing a sportive Saturday morning - will catch stage 1 on the big screen, then watch Stage 2 come past where we are camping.

msmancunia

Getting the early train up from my local station (I live on the Caldervale Mcr/Bradford/Leeds/Selby line) early Saturday morning to watch the stage start in Leeds on Saturday, then on Sunday cycling up to Holme Moss with some colleagues to watch, before all heading back to a colleague's house for a TdF party :-)

mtb-idle

I'm driving down to Morzine/Les Gets for a week's lift-assisted MTB action with my buddies tomorrow night so will strangely be watching the highlights of the UK stages of the TdF in France.

Back for a week and then drive to France again with my eldest son and our road bikes on 21st July to ride the mountains and catch the Pyrenees stages of the Tour. Mankini and Borat wig, paint and roller already packed 8)

(Here's me at top of Semnoz last year with some 'admirers'. It was 30 degrees plus and I have no idea how these guys managed to wear these costumes for literally hours and ooh, there's my website tag we are standing in front of too)

MrSweary

Will be stuck in a trustee lunch so will miss it on Monday... grrrrrrr :evil:

Levi_501

I am debating whether to watch from my window, or walk over to Tower Hill

cyclingprop

Half day and heading up to our embankment office to drop my stuff and find somewhere

supersonic

Jawbone hill at Grenoside/Oughtibridge.

arran77

My lounge.

mmuk

managed to rent a place for the weekend near Leyburn - so 6 of us are off tonight to have a day fighting others up the 'cols' and then find a spot on Saturday to sit to watch 'em go past

MM

elbowloh

rubertoe wrote:

I work over looking Birdcage walk.....

But I am heading out to Epping/North Weald with my club to watch it. We have several groups heading out to various parts of the course.

rubertoe, me and a couple of friends are thinking of cycling over to Epping area too from North London. Would it be cheeky to tag along with ICC?

rubertoe

elbowloh wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

I work over looking Birdcage walk.....

But I am heading out to Epping/North Weald with my club to watch it. We have several groups heading out to various parts of the course.

rubertoe, me and a couple of friends are thinking of cycling over to Epping area too from North London. Would it be cheeky to tag along with ICC?

PM Me,

that will be fine, we are heading over early though to watch the caravan and taking a loop out via herts to avoid any unforseen road closures.

cat_with_no_tail

Heading over on the boat in the morning. Staying at my mums house in Leeds and watching day 1 from Harrogate with the kids. We're getting there at about 10am but I reckon there is roughly zero chance of getting within about a mile of the finish.

Day 2 I think we'll watch from Huddersfield because it's easy to get to from my mums by train

Day 3 we're travelling home, so I'll watch the highlights when we're back.

bartimaeus

I will be watching from home... I will be looking out for the romantically named Cote de Blubberhouses at the start of stage 2.

tailwindhome

No spolier thread?

supersonic

Cote de Jenkin Hill another good spot - short but stupidly steep, 5km from end.

cat_with_no_tail

supersonic wrote:

Cote de Jenkin Hill another good spot - short but stupidly steep, 5km from end.

Unless you live there, or arrive at about 4am, I'd not even attempt trying to get anywhere near it though. All the very best spots are going to be absolute BEDLAM, guaranteed.

supersonic

Jawbone will be be better, I can sneak in across some fields ;-)

mrbobuk

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Side of road somewhere nr Ripon and then somewhere in Sheffield the next day. How the hell I'm going to get from Ripon to Sheffield I have *no* idea. It could involve every back lane I'm told about.

We're watching from Harrogate Kieran on Saturday (the kids and me). Cannae wait!

rick_chasey

Will be at the start in Cambridge - my home town.

YIMan

Train (from Nottingham) to Leeds early for the start on Saturday, then train to Harrogate for the finish.

Back to Sheffield on the train on Sunday.....we're planning Jenkins Road, walking from Meadowhall. Should be an interesting contract with Dutch Corner last year.

CiB

Saturday anywhere on the stretch of route from around Addingham as far maybe as Grassington, Sunday my plan for months has been to have another roll up Blackstone Edge to the top of Cragg Vale but it sounds like the whole world is aiming for that one corner. Blow it. It's my favourite hill, I'll be there.

lancew

I was going to head to the mall.

Aiming to get there by 11. Do you think that's early enough?

bobbygloss

Cat With No Tail wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Cote de Jenkin Hill another good spot - short but stupidly steep, 5km from end.

Unless you live there, or arrive at about 4am, I'd not even attempt trying to get anywhere near it though. All the very best spots are going to be absolute BEDLAM, guaranteed.

Excuse my ignorance of watching pro cycling, but what on earth are people going to do all day if they arrive early and get the best spot? The riders aren't coming until 4pm.
The one time I nearly saw part of a stage in France, I gave up and left in the hours after the caravan had been through.

rubertoe

Lancew wrote:

I was going to head to the mall.

Aiming to get there by 11. Do you think that's early enough?

No

msmancunia

CiB wrote:

Saturday anywhere on the stretch of route from around Addingham as far maybe as Grassington, Sunday my plan for months has been to have another roll up Blackstone Edge to the top of Cragg Vale but it sounds like the whole world is aiming for that one corner. Blow it. It's my favourite hill, I'll be there.

I'd be there too if it wasn't for friends all off to Holme Moss so I'm going with them. I read in the Manchester Evening News that there are going to be shuttle buses going from Littleborough to the top of Blackstone Edge so it's likely to be mental - maybe go down Cragg Vale a bit? Caravan hits Cragg Vale at 1159 and then the race between 1342 and 1358.

The landlord at the White House is expecting to sell around 5,000 pints :shock:

jonny_trousers

We're going to start at Green Park and see what happens. We'll have our nine-month-old son with us, so bagging a spot early on and waiting for hours just isn't an option.