AJBell Women's Tour

[andyoxon]

Starts tomorrow with Stage 1 through Oxfordshire.  https://www.womenstour.co.uk/

edit.  Lizzie Deignan on start list.

[MattH]

Not much of a tour of Britain, is it? 

Still looking forward to watching it though.

[TimC]

Not much of a tour of Britain, is it? 

Still looking forward to watching it though.

Well, it's not billed as a 'tour of Britain'. It's just a tour. This year, of a bit of southern and a bit of eastern England - which means I get to see a few seconds of two stages in person as they whiz past!

[PaulF]

May pop to the end of the road at lunchtime and watch them shoot past

[andyoxon]

May pop to the end of the road at lunchtime and watch them shoot past

Same here.   

Predicted timings: https://www.womenstour.co.uk/stage-one-timetable/

edit.  Hopefully they've carefully checked the roads, to make sure no repeat of this:
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17707911.ovo-womens-cycle-crash-proof-pothole-ended-marianne-voss-race/

[JonBuoy]

It would be ironic to survive Paris-Roubaix only to be taken out a couple of days later by the Hell of Oxfordshire.

[PaulF]

It’s the Vale of the White Horse who have a somewhat erratic approach to road maintenance (and everything else it would seem) so I’d have low expectations of the road conditions and would still be disappointed.

[andyoxon]

Good to see all the riders earlier...

Not really a race one can follow when in progress unfortunately.  'Live blog' with 30 min gaps between updates, no live tracking, no live coverage...

PXL_20211004_122034600 by ao, on Flickr

PXL_20211004_122035407 by ao, on Flickr

Lizzie D?  (Behind rider with yellow jersey)

WT1 by a oxon, on Flickr

[drgannet]

Lizzie D?  (Behind rider with yellow jersey)

Yup, WC stripes on shirt sleeves, and no gloves.

It was good to cheer them on as they passed through.

[andyoxon]

I wonder how her hands were today, post PR.

https://road.cc/content/news/lizzie-deignan-bloody-handlebars-paris-roubaix-286813

[Mr Larrington]

I expect she pickles them in vinegar, like bare-knuckle boxers

[The Family Cyclist]

It starts about 1/4 mile from my work Friday so going to skive off for a bit a day watch it go past

[geoff]

Whooshed... (well, gently bumped really) past chez Geoff at lunchtime, en route to Abadaberdingdon, (as the locals don't much call it).

Village school and all neighbours turned out to cheer. My tenuous claim to fame was providing the car air compressor to one of the many cop bikes... this one had a brand new tyre slashed by the devilish roads round here. We're not even Vale (of the white hearse) either, but South Oxon DC.  (why I ride 'thons )
.. Just hope none of the peleton experienced similar visitations.

https://youtu.be/3Y3JSwNCKJg

Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk

[rafletcher]

I wonder how her hands were today, post PR.

https://road.cc/content/news/lizzie-deignan-bloody-handlebars-paris-roubaix-286813

I just watched the highlights of the first stage, and she had what looked like taping, or a cut down glove, on her left hand.

[andyoxon]

Stg 1 highlights editing a bit disappointing; showed just 1km (of intermediate sprint) between 0km & ~90km, missed out Oxford & Abingdon totally. 

Looked like a nasty crash on that roundabout merge in Banbury...

[The Family Cyclist]

It starts about 1/4 mile from my work Friday so going to skive off for a bit a day watch it go past

Arse all of a sudden it was midday and had missed my chance