Luke Rowe, for example, winning the first stage, and generally whizzing about the place. Go, Luke!
Mark "Marky Mark" Cavendish going for every sprint stage: check!
Bradley waving at the crowd and signing autographs along the way: ok, not terribly accurate on that one, he worked like a real domestique for days, then on the very stage that LLB and I went to, he went down with a stomach bug, drat. So we didn't get to see those famous sideburns in person this year.
Boy Van Poppel certainly did me proud - he won the overall points jersey, so well done to him.
I also mentioned John Herety who runs Rapha Condor - check! Saw him, in fact he nearly ran my foot over in the team car, but more of that later.
Didn't see Sean Kelly of An Post Sean Kelly team: but I saw quite a lot of team UK Youth, and Yanto Barker (pause for mild swooning) came 6th in the final stage, quite literally in front of me.
Sammy Sanchez - check! He's not as scary in real life as on the TV, possibly because I saw him on his way to sign in, so the scary corrugated forehead was not in sight, he was quite relaxed. And rather smaller than he appears on TV.
Orica Greenedge were there, saw them, got a musette, check! Did the "Call me" to the team car, got a big smile and a return of the gesture: check!
Team UK Youth: check! I have to report that Magnus Backstedt is a huge bear of a man, even allowing for the fact that, like all pro cyclists, he's lean: he's very easy to spot in the peloton! I think he's as tall as JVS (honorary Schlecklander Johan Van Summeren) but much beefier. I am now a confirmed UK Yoof supporter, or had you already guessed?
So, what are my impressions of a Start, then?
You might remember that last year, LLB and I went to a couple of stages of the ToB, we learned about good places to stand, how to find a good spot on the route, what fun TTs are, how close the cyclists get, and how to avoid being caught on camera - well, except for that one video - and we experienced a stage race, a loop, a crit, and a TT.
This year I specifically wanted to go to a start, and to go to a finish,
Our "start" was Stage 6, Welshpool to Caerphilly, and I had cunningly lured LLB on a short holiday, just a couple of days, to visit a couple of places in Wales that I had been wanting to see, and to just casually, on the way back, take in the start.
We agreed that we wanted to get to Powis castle nice and early, about an hour and a half before the start, so we left the hotel straight after breakfast and headed out.
There was I, merrily driving along the Shrewsbury by-pass, both of us full of Little Chef cooked breakfast, when suddenly I noticed a UK Youth car coming up on the outside. Followed by a UK Youth van. And then another UK Youth car.
Aha, the UK Youth team are clearly on their way to the event! I waved at them as they passed, and was tempted to follow them, but they were pressing on a bit, and we weren't in a rush, so we let them go.
On arrival at Powis, we were quite surprised to see the queue of cars ahead of us, bearing in mind that we were good and early. Car parking was beautifully organised in a massive field, with lots of marshalls on hand to direct the stream of people up to the Castle - and there was a constant stream, far more than I would have expected for a mid-week, somewhat overcast day in the middle of Wales.
If you've never been to a start, I can tell you, the podium area is really, really, noisy! They seem to think that playing loud music is the way to get everyone excited, along with a hyper-thyroid children's TV presenter (well, that's what he sounded like) geeing everyone up.
They also bus in as many loads of schoolkids as possible - the younger the better. They rope off areas against the barriers right by the start for the schools, thus ensuring the maximum volume of screaming.
Not wishing to lose our hearing, we strolled away from the start in search of team buses. There were only a couple on site, which rather surprised us: the three UK Youth vehicles, of course, and the big Garmin bus and their team cars. We did wonder where the UK Youth riders were: were they squashed in the back of the van? Surely it was a kit van, not a mini-van?
The Garmin bus was, obviously, getting all the attention: there was a significant crowd gathered around it on all sides. Slightly unfortunate then, that one of the mechanics decided to move one of the team cars, and didn't quite realise that the car park area was far from level. CRUNCH!!!! Heads turned from all directions, and gales of laughter swept round the audience once they realised that no bikes had been harmed, just the bumpers of the two cars.
Luckily for the extremely embarrassed Garmin workers, the Deathstar appeared - you know, that huge Sky coach with the satellite dish on top.Apparently they have two of them, Deathstar 1 and Deathstar 2. Deathstar 1 does all the big races, the Tours and so on, while Deathstar 2 covers the less important outings. We were clearly being honoured with Deathstar 1, and it swept slowly into the parking area, like a gigantic black magnet that pulled all the spectators away from Garmin and the dented cars. I think the driver had planned to stop the coach next to the Garmin one, neatly in line, but he had to stop where he was, because of the huge crowd.
At that point, taking advantage of the sudden silence around the Garmin bus, I made my quivering way to the bus in my search for a musette. See Mumping of the Musettes for the gory details.
Shortly after the Deathstar, other teams started arriving, including - about half an hour later - the UK Youth hired minibus and the nauseating pink Wyndy Milla van, they being the company who supply the bikes. They've changed their logo from horrible pink:
I have nothing more to say on this subject.
...to a very tasty Union Jack logo on white background, which is far, far nicer.
Sadly, their kit van is still pink, and now rather faded pink at that. But as we know, the UK cycling scene is still at the bottom of the scale of popularity etc, so sponsorship, and therefore funding, is still hard to come by. Obviously, it's a lot cheaper to put up with the pink van than to have an expensive respray.
The UK Youth kit is likewise mostly white (cries of "No! Not white shorts!") although sometimes they wear black shorts with their white jerseys, of which I approve highly.
The time was ticking by... for a 10.30 start, it was a bit odd to see buses still rolling into the car park at gone 10 o'clock. And hardly any signs of riders, just mechanics doodling around, checking bikes, and fending off nervous but determined Cougs who were mumping for musettes.
Oh, before I leave the subject of UK Youth, LLB and I did our bit towards supporting them: being first in, they were parked right at the top, by the big metal sign saying "Team Parking" or something similar. It was a heavy metal sign, but not quite heavy enough for a windy day in Wales: LLB and I looked at it and said "let's hope that doesn't fall over on the team car." A little later, we were inspecting the bikes on the team car roof - they are a great deal chunkier than you would expect, btw - and the wind caught the sign, which started to fall over. Luckily, quick-thinking LLB caught it before it fell, and stood on it, to hold it upright, while I attracted the attention of one of the management team, and advised them about the sign.
They moved the sign away from their team car, and then additionally moved the team car back a couple of feet. We felt happy that we'd prevented an accident.
Even more so five minutes later, when, with a loud CLANG! the sign fell over, right where the car would have been.
Hey, we saved them money on their car insurance! And they have the nice mechanic to thank for it - if he hadn't kindly given me the musette earlier, we would not have been hanging around by their cars admiring the bikes, confident that they wouldn't shout at us to go away.
The buses kept rolling in, right up until about 20 past 10 - and don't forget, the start was due at 10.30, and I found this really weird. Presumably riders have done their warm-up on rollers at the hotel, or maybe on the roads, earlier on? They certainly would not have had much time at the start zone.
Note for would-be stalkers: not much point hanging out at the buses, everyone else is there and you will be just a face in the crowd. Plus, they keep the riders locked on the buses until the last minute, behind mirror glass...... however, they all have to go up to the podium to sign on, and they do this very, very slowly indeed. So, if you want a good close look at them, work out the route between where the team buses are parked, and the start podium, and get yourself somewhere between the two.
We found a nice spot on the lead-in road, settled down with flags and cameras, and watched everyone coming past once in order to sign on, then coming past us again to return to the team buses. Absolutely near enough to touch, if you really want to get yourself arrested for molesting a cyclist.
We saw most of the Sky guys coming past at least once - three times, in the case of Jeremy Hunt - but no Bradley. We kept wondering where he was, and it wasn't until we got home and checked the news that we heard about him having to drop out due to a stomach bug.
There now follows a selection of the photos I took on the day, just to prove that I was there: my captions are below each one.
Oh, and yes, barriers on one side, but no barriers on the other side, you really could mingle with them, if you wanted to.
Liquigas coming back down.
Drat, I missed him. Sorry about that.
Endura racing, one of our domestic teams: merging with NetApp next season, which means they are going up to Pro Continental status, just as their star, Jonathon Tiernan-Locke, leaves them. Ironic, huh? Rumour has it that JT-L is going to Sky, but we don't know for certain yet.
Ah, that will be an elbow, then.Behind the elbow, Christian Knees! No, not really, it's VacanSoleil.
Sky's Jeremy Hunt.You can tell, he has it written on the side of his jersey.
Euskaltel - ah, dear little carrots. Sadly, one of them was dead within a week.
Team Great Britain: nice kit! Last-minute addition to the Tour, apparently.
My pet, Luke Rowe. Go, Luke!
Are you ready for a terrible religious joke? *in voice of thunder* And God cried out to Luke, crying "Luke! Luke!" But Luke never looked, and fell down an 'ole. OK, it works better when said in a northern accent.
Marky Mark Cavendish, not looking happy. He rarely does, actually.
Jeremy Hunt returning.
Oh, Jeremy Hunt going back up again. With a different UK Youth rider. (no arm warmers, did you notice?) Perhaps he's on escort duty. Funny, we didn't see him come down again...
Rapha Condor looking nervous.
Pff! That kit is even worse than that of Farnese...it's Node 4, in case you've never heard of them.
NetApp look nervous...
"Call me, maybe" Drat, Christian Knees got in the way. Never mind, I'll catch them later.
The start line. As you can see, crowds of people. Just after 10.30, nothing happened, and after a while the announcer-car came backwards up the start funnel, saying "Sorry, folks, slight delay, we're going to be about 15 minutes late in starting due to a technical problem."
LLB and I decided we'd had enough of the crowds, so we made our way along the route away from the start, until the crowds thinned right out, and there was plenty of room to stand right at the roadside.
We found a good place at the head of the cavalcade, and (being me) I struck up a conversation with the Blackboard motorcycle. Well, with the rider and passenger, obviously, not with the actual motorbike, that would be strange.
Coug: "So, Mr Motorcycle, how are you enjoying your participation in the Tour?"
Bike: " "
Coug: "Is it tough on the clutch?"
Bike: " "
Yes, best not to go there.
The blackboard girl was very nice, she was happy that the weather was improving, and that they were not likely to have to drive through deep puddles today, but commented that they - her and the rider - were now famous as they'd been on the BBC news following the Blackpool stage: apparently there was deep water on the road, and she'd lifted her legs up to avoid getting wet feet. We had to admit that we were away from home on holiday, and hadn't yet watched that footage.
(But we did when we returned, and sure enough, there she was lifting her feet up - very comical.)
The chap on the front said it wasn't his first Tour, he'd been a motorcycle rider in the Giro and the TdF as well, in fact he was very experienced at doing it. He said the worst part about working the Tour of Britain, apart from the girl on the back (who swiped him with her blackboard for saying it!) was having to work with some of the domestic teams, who were not as savvy as the Pro Team riders, and who would always try to take a draft from him. He said that the pro riders didn't do that, they just kept on cycling.
The technical problem turned out to be the police outriders who were having problems with their radios, but new batteries had been found, and sure enough, ten minutes later, they got the word that all was ready, so we said goodbye, wished them well for the day, stepped back and let them make their way off.
The rest of the leading motorcade went past, then the cyclists, led by Team Sky:
And when the Orica GreenEdge car got to us, that was the moment when I gave the "Call me, maybe" gesture and received it back from the driver.
Proud!
It was a good time to do it, they were going really slowly, as they were still within the grounds of the Castle, well within the neutralized zone, and the driver's big smile made it all worthwhile.
And that was that! We made our way back to the car par field, and I was staggered to see how many cars were there. It was an enormous field, and it was completely covered in cars - there must have been way more than a thousand cars there, which is fantastic, and I'm really thrilled to think that so many people in Britain are now interested in cycling.
So there you go, that's the "start" done - check! - now just the finish to go.
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