Tour of Britain 2023

[MattH]

In Wrexham. It's baking hot already. At least today is only like a Sunday club run in length - which may well mean someone goes for it from the off.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Is there a forum or familial connection to Zeb?

Friends with Zeb and his parents via Moulton bikes, for well over a decade.

[Peter]

Ah, ok, D!

[Peter]

In Wrexham. It's baking hot already. At least today is only like a Sunday club run in length - which may well mean someone goes for it from the off.

Matt, are you on one of the several hundred motos?  Or in a team car?

[Salvatore]

Awesome first day, with fantastic weather. Big support at the roadside too, in all the towns and villages and the various Kom lines. Forgot how good some of those roads are to ride!

Brian Smith, while recounting his experiences as race director, and some of the challenges he faced: "The NEG are absolutely phenomenal in what they do."

[Peter]

What is NEG, please?

[De Sisti]

What is NEG, please?

National Escort Group. The motorbike riders who make the road ahead safe for the peloton.

[Peter]

Thanks!

[De Sisti]

Thanks!

Sometimes aided by the local police.

[MattH]

There's 25 NEG and 30 police CEG (central escort group) bikes, plus  some cars.  Then local police stationary in some towns. Police and NEG come from all over the UK. I'm NEG.

[Peter]

Ok!  I'll have seen you yesterday up Grains Bar - but you in't seen me, roit?!

PS, I've ridden many Audices along those lanes on today's stage but they looked really hairy at today's speeds!

Take care of yourself.

[Flite]

The escort motor bikes are always fun to watch - Spot how many different police forces are represented.
And when they stop they always have a comment or quip to roadside spectators.
One of the best was at the TdeY near Arncliffe:
"They are running a bit late, they have stopped for a cup of tea in Settle"

Respect - it's an intense job.
Do you have to ride the transfers between stages as well, or do the motorbikes and riders have other transport?

[MattH]

We ride between. So we can sometimes add hundreds of miles onto race distance to get from the hotel in the morning to the start and to the next hotel afterwards. I'm expecting to do just under 2000 miles this week.

Yellow jackets are police, orange NEG, though many NEG are serving or ex-police.

In Goole now. Looking to be a hot day...

[Nuncio]

We're planning to go to Margam for the Sunday start. I'll look out for you Matt.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Am in Edwinstowe to watch tomorrow’s start.

Last year was watching in Edwinstowe and it became the last stage because just as the peloton passed through, the Queen died. God save the King!

[MattH]

Nuncio, be good to see you, been far too long since we've ridden together.

Great stage today, fantastic scenery and roads. Need to read the reports to find what actually happened though...

[matthew]

We ride between. So we can sometimes add hundreds of miles onto race distance to get from the hotel in the morning to the start and to the next hotel afterwards.

I should imagine that is quite the convoy. Marked Police bikes and the NEG marked bikes with advanced trained and experienced riders, there must be a lot to learn from each other just on that part let alone when actually working the stages.

[MattH]

We don't normally ride together - it's too hard to get through towns or keep together on a motorway without affecting other traffic. So police ride separately and NEG break down to groups of half a dozen or so.

[Salvatore]

Many years ago, I'd guess in the early 1990s, for several years in a row, the Milk Race started at Land's End. The warden of LE YHA, Brian Wood, was a keen audaxer and organised a program of audaxes over the weekend (usually a BH), and it was planned so that you could watch the racing and ride your bike round Cornwall, and then follow the race as it left the SW (often into S Wales where I lived at the time). I was a regular there.

One year I was driving there, still a long way from the SW, when I was overtaken by about half a dozen motorcycles. They were all police motorbikes, but the livery was all subtly different, and the insignia showed different forces. Some time later I realised that they were also heading for the start of the Milk Race.

[yoav]

There's 25 NEG and 30 police CEG (central escort group) bikes, plus  some cars.  Then local police stationary in some towns. Police and NEG come from all over the UK. I'm NEG.

Nice to see another forum member who is also a NEG. Not many NEG actually ride a bicycle.
I’m in Scotland BTW.

[MattH]

A fair number of the team here are cyclists, and some involved in pro racing.

I'm also not the only audaxer, turns out one guy had been on some of the same rides as me from the huts.

[MattH]

Warming up now, going to be another hour one. Let's see if the Nottingham stage tops off another monarch like last year...

[Peter]

Anyone else think that having MattC involved is rapidly becoming the only interesting thing about this Tour?

Edit (thanks, Nuncio)  MattH, not MattC!

[Nuncio]

Who's MattC riding for?

[Peter]

Sorry, I will put it right!!!