On Wednesday the Tour of Britain graced our end of Somerset with its presence.  The Stage 5 finish was in Glastonbury, which is so near here as to make it rude not to attend.  We did consider trying to find other places to watch it from but since there’s nothing on the route near here that any of the pro riders would even consider a hill, and thus be going slower up, there didn’t seem much point standing on the flat somewhere just to watch them swoosh past..

So, a contingent of the ACG set out from the Square around midday and went the nice flat easy way.  Well, not that easy because the wind was horrendous and, although it wasn’t in our faces, and was even occasionally behind us, mostly it was just attacking us with great gust-o from the side.  Not very nice.  I hate that lurch sideways across the road moment when it catches you through a gap in the hedge…

We obviously weren’t the only cyclists converging on Glastonbury.  We passed a couple of them, and the rest of them were hanging out on the High Street, trying to find places to park bikes, negotiating throngs of pedestrians, and by their sheer numbers making multi-coloured lyrca look normal.  We managed to lose one of our number in the throng, which wasn’t so good.  We had coffee and cake at Heaphy’s since there was space to sit outside and we thought he was inside with the three newbies, and he wasn’t.  Oops – sorry!  Since there was no view from there, what with it being the wrong side of the finish line and all, we decided to relocate to the top of the east end of town where the riders would just have come uphill, and any last minute action would be happening before the descent into town.  We managed to lose another three just doing that!

Those of us that were left found a nice corner to be on, parked our bikes on the grass between ourselves and a field of screaming school children, and waited…  Bearing in mind that most of those small children know nothing about cycling and care even less, their ability to be extremely over-excited about the whole thing and their stamina in maintaining that hysterial for a good hour or so is a thing to marvel at.  We on the other hand stood around making small talk, getting cold, occasionally getting rained on, and if  you’re me, jumping up and down to try and keep warm.   I’m darn glad I chose to take my arms with me, otherwise I’d have been done for…

Eventually, much later than planned, and after a host of police motorcycle outriders passed by, clearly enjoying their jobs immensely, we actually got to see cyclists.  The leader, a lone figure (Marco Frapporti apparently), nearly got lost just past us, which was amusing, but would probably have been less so if it had cost him the lead.  As it was, Mr Wiggins was close behind, but not close enough.  A couple of others followed, then one in-betweener, before the peloton went past…  And that was that.

We headed for home at a pace., or at least we set off that way, because I was freezing and needed to warm up.  GB and I both had school run commitments to get back for – his more urgent than mine – and time was running out.  He headed off into the distance, and the group spread out.  The wind was really nasty, and slowed us a down a lot, but at least having to push against it meant I stopped being cold fairly quickly.  On our way we passed a lot of cyclists clearly doing just the same as us – I pictured an aerial photo of the area showing a starburst of cyclists heading outwards from Glastonbury.   We ended up getting home in dribs and drabs, but at least we all got home in one piece, able to say that we had been there 🙂

Cycling time: 2:06:50
Distance: 31.54 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph
ODO: 5876