Had a good day down near Stoke/Uttoxeter spannering for the Tour of Britain sportive which was a 145km loop around some beautiful countryside and around Alton Towers.

A 5 o’clock wake-up and drive down the m6 got me down to Stramshall for 8 ish after a brief stop for pain au chocolats (we are athletes after all) and coffee.  We got to set up the tents which covered the mountain of water and Mule bars/Soreen stall – very popular with riders and wasps alike! The mechanics tent got its workstand and tools ready for the onslaught.

Thirsty sir?

With the first riders starting off at 8 they were soon into the feed station which was 54km into the route. A couple of keeno’s who obviously didn’t appreciate a sportive being a ‘sportive’ went straight by followed by the main deluge which tucked into the offerings. With bottles and food all over the place there were thankfully not many mechanicals to deal with which was why I went down (for info there were 5 problems – all front mech problems – have a look at yours and see how it works so that you can fix it if something happens next time you’re out! We’ll put together a good blog article on setup and general tips for mechs this week).

I do know what I'm doing, honest

Busy busy

Time soon flew by, and after the ambulance crew (thanks for all the other help) quickly picked up the crasher of the day we were all ready to pack up. The support cars for the actual TOB have been supplied by Honda and look great:

TOB Support Cars

Thanks to all the people at the feed station and Steph&crew early on, the Saddleback guys, and most importantly to those who got round the course – it wasn’t easy and after stopping for food here the hills began, I enjoyed getting my hands oily and tinkering with bikes, and hopefully everyone got fed and drank.

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