Tour of Britain Cycle Race

 The Men's Tour of Britain Cycle Race had two stages in Suffolk this year. This is at least the fourth time that the men in lycra have raced through the county. I went to watch many years ago at the smallholding when they zoomed down the A1094 to Aldeburgh. Then when we were at Clay Cottage before Col died we went  just a few miles to watch them whizz through Eye.

The 169.3-kilometre (105.3-mile) leg will depart from Ipswich Street in the town centre at 11:00, leaving towards Stowupland and Forward Green. The route takes in Debenham and Bedfield, before the intermediate sprint in Stradbroke after 40 kilometres of racing. 

START Ipswich Street, Stowmarket 11:00 | Stonham Aspal 11:23 | Debenham 11:31 | Stradbroke 12:13 | Walsham le Willows 12:58 | Lavenham 13:49 | Sudbury 14:08 | Stoke-by-Nayland 14:21 | Hadleigh 14:41 | Hitcham 14:58 | FINISH Ipswich Street, Stowmarket 15:16

(Makes me smile to see the King of The Mountain stage - one of the few steep-ish hills in Suffolk)


I've never seen where they get ready for the beginning of a race, so as I needed to go to Stow anyway I went early and walked through town to where all the police and safety people were parked up ready for the start.

The is where the finish line was -  ready for the end of the day. 

On one town car parks they had a huge screen showing some previous race footage with extremely LOUD speakers. This is where the presentations are made at the end of the race.

I felt sorry for the people on the trade stands- they'll be deaf by the end of the day!

On another town car park the coaches and support cars were gathering. A tight squeeze to get them in and out but I guess it's like that in all the small towns they roll up to.

I not exactly sure where the start line was. The first road with the rolling closure was on one of the main roads out of town - the road I usually use for getting in and out of Stowmarket - but sensibly didn't use it yesterday!

That's when it started raining again, so I walked back through town to Asda - where the car park was by then chock-a-block, got the bits of shopping and home again.

Home with time for lunch before I went out  again just a few miles to the village of Gislingham, where I knew I could get in and out of the village and park without getting caught up in any rolling road block.

(The rain had stopped at this point, but the poor blokes got soaked later in the day)

First lots of support vehicles and police and  then there was a breakaway of 4 cyclists just over 1 minute ahead of the others.

(I didn't notice a mans leg on the rails on every blinkin' photo I took!)

Then the peloton, several people had come out to watch.

It's impossible to look and see who anyone is and the 100+ riders were by in a flash!

More support vehicles, ambulances, medical people, media and that was that.

Then home again and I put ITV4+1 on to see the race. They didn't show the cyclists going through Gislingham - that was during one of the very long ad-breaks. At the end of the race there were some good overhead views of Stowmarket and it looked like a good crowd watching the presentations.

 

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