Tour of Britain- What to expect?

percyshaw
percyshaw Posts: 3
edited August 2008 in Pro race
Hi. Hope you folks don't mind a total novice posting here, and I hope I've found the correct part of your forum to post in. :?

I am the Deputy Head of a small primary school. I noticed today that Stage 4 of the Tour of Britain passes within 2 mins of the school so naturally I'd like to take the school out to develop the "Olympic and Cycling" Bug that the children are sure to have. The official site states that the riders should come by at around 11am. How accurate is this likely to be... what time should I get the kids roadside by?

What can I expect to see (I told you I was a novice)? Will their just be a few riders whizzing by within 30secs or is, as I expect, there a whole entourage of vehicles involved?

Finally the end of a climb section is about 10 mins walk away at High Habberley. Is it worth the walk (with kids) to see this?

Many, many thanks for your help. 8)

Comments

  • GroupOfOne MkII
    GroupOfOne MkII Posts: 1,289
    There's a whole entourage of vehicles, so it's actually quite a spectacle for the kids even without the riders whizzing by.

    I know last year a lot of schools were outside on the route cheering the race on, so I'm sure you'd definitely be encourage to, as they're our next (ok maybe next but one) generation of Olympic champions. Why don't you drop the guys at the ToB an email, as I'm sure they could be of help, as I know E.ON were running some sort of schools promotion for the race this year.

    Don't know much about the climb at HH, is it steep etc, and I suspect that the kids would get as much out of the race from seeing it whizz past their school as they would from walking 10mins up the road. Plus it's not every sport where they'll be able to say that an Olympic champion came past their school while competing is it!
  • Noodley
    Noodley Posts: 1,725
    Depending on how hard the climb is there is the possibility the riders may be spread out a bit, so more likely to see it for longer rather than whizzing past and they are gone...but a peleton in full flight is impressive!

    ...either way, I'm sure the kids will enjoy it :D
  • percyshaw
    percyshaw Posts: 3
    Many thanks for your replies, and especially to GroupOfOne for your PM which I will follow up. I'm looking forward to involving the whole school with this, should be a great start to the school year and a good follow up to the Olympic excitement.
  • deal
    deal Posts: 857
    the climb is a category 3 (higher number = easier climb) according the tob website so nothing too severe, i personally wouldnt bother taking the walk, watching the peleton shoot past would likely be more exciting for the kids.

    If take a look at the highlights of the tour of ireland tomorrow shown all this week on itv4 (tomorrow night its 7:30pm i think) it should give you some idea of what to expect, the events are similar in scale

    couple of pics on the website from last years race

    http://www.tourofbritain.com/_uploaded_ ... oding-.jpg

    http://www.tourofbritain.com/gallery_pa ... mageid=128
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    Great idea. I took up cycling after seeing the same race go past and watching it on TV. Maybe some will also find they take up the sport and enjoy it because of this.

    It is a quick thing though. Even on a hill you will be surprised at the speed they go past
  • selfpropelledpaolo
    selfpropelledpaolo Posts: 32
    is the Tour of Britain a similar scale to Ireland?

    I looked at Ireland on ITV4 tonight and there didn't seem to be any spectators, hoping to see at least a few more out on the roadside for Tour of Britain!
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Not trying to put you off taking the kids but it wont be a great spectacle- more like the 30 seconds with riders and a cars whizzing past. It's worth a 2 minute walk I suppose and it sounds like it's early in the stage so the time will probably be fairly accurate. If it was the Tour de France you'd have a big publicity caravan throwing freebies to the kids but the Tour of Britain is a small event although it does get relatively good crowds by the roadside in places because it's the only chance we get to watch some of these riders in the UK.

    Watching at the top of a decent categorised climb should at least mean there is a reasonable crowd of spectators cheering and the riders will whizz past that little bit slower but even then it wont be great.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,801
    I'm not watching it
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • andyrac
    andyrac Posts: 1,131
    Excuse my ignorance, but is there any reason why there isn't a Time Trial in the ToB?
    All Road/ Gravel: tbcWinter: tbcMTB: tbcRoad: tbc"Look at the time...." "he's fallen like an old lady on a cruise ship..."
  • DavidBelcher
    DavidBelcher Posts: 2,684
    Depends on what the organisers feel like doing from year to year. In 2005 they had a circuit TT in Birmingham which didn't really affect GC as it was too short and on an easy course, whilst last year had the Prologue at Crystal Palace, so maybe they decided to leave out a TT for this year purely for variety. Likewise last year's was the first edition to omit the central London criterium finale.

    David
    "It is not enough merely to win; others must lose." - Gore Vidal
  • DavidBelcher
    DavidBelcher Posts: 2,684
    Kléber wrote:
    Great idea. I took up cycling after seeing the same race go past and watching it on TV.

    Me too - I think my earliest memory of cycle racing is from about the age of 11 or 12 when we were held up in traffic in Cannock waiting for the Kellogg's Tour (or it may well have been the Milk Race) to pass through. Not long after that I got a 'proper' adult-sized bike with dropped bars, started watching the city-centre races and TdF on Channel 4, and the rest is history....

    David
    "It is not enough merely to win; others must lose." - Gore Vidal
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    They should keep it real and have an out and back TT on a stretch of A road really early in the morning.

    :wink:
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Didn't they time the TT with stopwatches last year? Now that's keeping it real. Old school.

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