The tour came to London this weekend and I was lucky enough to be on the marshalling team for Sunday’s Stage 1 from London to Canterbury, not that I felt particularly lucky when my alarm went off at 4.45am.
I was shipped out to Woolwich, not one of the more delightful spots of the route but it was downstream of Greenwich which means that the cyclists were in the midst of the race proper as they passed by unlike the Depart fictif played out through central London.
Being a marshall was a good wheeze, I was showered with loads of tour goodies – t-shirt, medal and baseball cap, and was ferried out to one of the best viewing spots available. The crowd were so well behaved I didn’t even have any marshalling type activity to do, which left me a bit of time to play with my new phone and catch a video of the proceedings. Unfortunately I was holding the phone the wrong way round and haven’t fathomed out how to rotate it so you’ll have to flip your monitors over if you want to see this in its full glory.
The roads were closed from 5am which gave the early morning runners the opportunity of running their own private London marathon route. Where supporters were already lining the streets the runners got a few rallying calls of Allez allez.
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I kind of like the perspective the video offers, with the shadows standing rightside up.
I saw some of the first leg on TV here in Oz and great to know you were part of the marshaling team. It would have been a real thrill for you. I can’t remember a TDF starting in the UK before. Was this a first? Wimbledon, TDF – what a great time to be in the UK.
Can you do a review of the N95 please? I never got one in the end but am still considering it
Well that’s a project for a lonely night in, I’ll add it to my essential running gadgets page although I’m not sure it is.
Thanks for the great video, and interesting to read about those runners testing out the route.
Saw something similar in London, just after the end of the Prologue. The streets were deserted and empty in a way which I’ve never seen outside that film 28 days later.
Except for the crowds still packing the pavements, of course. It made for an eerie sight.
Just as the police were getting onto their walkie-talkies to contemplate opening up the roads again, out of the crowd popped three joggers, who deftly hopped over the barriers and started blithely jogging down the middle of Park Lane together, heading nonchalantly towards Hyde Park Corner.
Such forethought and organisation, I thought – since they must have been lying in wait all day, kitted up and ready exactly for that moment.
I just hope they made it safely to Green Park before being run over by the crowds heading for the tube stations, rather than falling as mere urban roadkill to all that pent-up traffic …
I’ve been considering the N95 as well, so looking forward to a review.
LOL! All that for 52 seconds…
Wow! I was surprised by the sheer amount of cars following behind. I bet the riders don’t even carry their own hair;) Me and 9 others have only just got ourselves a van for our 100 mile ride from Dover to Dorking and they have had this planned since last year…otherwise we would have been carrying everything;) Plus we won’t have the luxury of our support vehicle being on the same route as us as we will be off road for the entire route.
Hope you’re well WW:)
Jaex
How cool! You don’t get the sense that they’re going that fast when you’re watching the footage from a moving motorcycle on TV. Did you see me out there? I was the one in the back with my boobs taped down and a glue-on mustache
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