Tour of Britain 2010 route

[rafletcher]

Race manual is now available. Predicted time for top of Black Mountain is 12:49 - 13:21.

Edit - think I might head straight to Black Mountain with a snack and drop down to Carreg Cennen feeding zone afterwards for post race analysis if anybody's interested.

So it is  - thanks (linky - 19.7 MB)

I will have to start my planning for attendence at the Bury St Edmunds to Colchester stage.

If you're at the finish our local French Market lady Valery will be doing a mass paella or cous-cous apparently - was asked by the local council last week to participate.

[bobb]

I will have to start my planning for attendence at the Bury St Edmunds to Colchester stage.

I notice it goes right through Witham. Might have to hop on a train to watch them go through, then carry on to Colchester to see the finish 

[Tewdric]

Is there any appetite for a forum ride from, say, Abergavenny bus station to watch them go over the Black Mountain?  It would mean a fairly early start - it's a good 4 hours ride across. It's equally doable from the final MacDonalds on the Heads of the Valley's Road and quite a bit shorter.

I haven't got the final nod to take the day of work but I should be fine.

[saturn]

OS X (Eastings)     272820
OS Y (Northings)    219170
Nearest Post Code   SA19 9PA

It's a toss-up between Constitution Hill in Swansea and the Black Mountain, but I've decided on the Mountain so will see you there Tewdric (and GruB?).  I know the exact spot I intend to be - just a little up from here.   

Forecast for Monday looks OK, I'll be there in a white, red & green Beacon RCC jersey (hopefully not a yellow waterproof) and afterwards in the Carreg Castle Cafe.

[Nuncio]

Have a good ride down (and across) Saturn.  I'll look out for you.  I'll be wearing my ACF cap, and, what the hell, my (also) white, red and green Mille Cymru jersey.  Aiming to get to that spot with miniog at some time towards 12:30, from the Carreg Cennen direction.  Will probably join you going back there afterwards.

I see the provisional start list has been published.  It looks to me like a field full of sprinters and TTers, based on the names I recognize.

[Tewdric]

I've been unable to get of working nights on sunday, so I won't be up and about in time to get to the Black Mountain now :-(

[jogler]

The route is looped herebouts giving an opportunity to see it twice within 8km of home

[vorsprung]

The day it goes past my house Mrs V is working

The day after it passes the next village so we are going to cycle up to the top of monument hill near Wellington 12:00-14:00 and watch it there.  This is the same route that the Sportive took

[miniog]

Have a good ride down (and across) Saturn.  I'll look out for you.  I'll be wearing my ACF cap, and, what the hell, my (also) white, red and green Mille Cymru jersey.  Aiming to get to that spot with miniog at some time towards 12:30, from the Carreg Cennen direction. 

Poseur! I was going to wear my Mille Cymru jersey too. It will have to be my red Aldi jersey instead

[vorsprung]

I see that a hill I use for hill repeats is featured for "KOM" points.  Its the hill out of Hemyock in the Wellington direction.  And they say it is a category 1. Which seems a bit wrong
It's about 25% on the steepest bit but it's not very long

Image326 by vorsprung2009, on Flickr

[gordon taylor]

The race goes within two miles of my house at 11 am today, and loops back to within five miles of my house at 1 pm! There's a sprint at each point.

 

I shall attend both, en tricycle, methinks. 

[jogler]

I shall have to miss the 1130-ish passage at Fole but might get to the 1340-ish passing at Creswell

[gordon taylor]

There was quite a decent crowd, IMHO. This was the peleton about half a minute behind the leading group. I don't know who won the sprint, a Sky rider, I think.

[jogler]

I shall have to miss the 1130-ish passage at Fole but might get to the 1340-ish passing at Creswell

No,not going to get there either

[Baggy]

I see that a hill I use for hill repeats is featured for "KOM" points.  Its the hill out of Hemyock in the Wellington direction.  And they say it is a category 1. Which seems a bit wrong
It's about 25% on the steepest bit but it's not very long

I've blotted out of my mind where the KOM signs for that hill start, but rest assured they are quite a long way from the finish signs...

[Salvatore]

- think I might head straight to Black Mountain with a snack and drop down to Carreg Cennen feeding zone afterwards for post race analysis if anybody's interested.

Oh dear

1325: Visibility very bad now, only ~20m because of thick fog and very heavy rain on Black Mountain. And there's a strong headwind too

Yfrog Image : yfrog.com/mrps2doj  - Uploaded by teamsigmasport

[Tewdric]

Oops...

[Nuncio]

Well, we didn't see Saturn. There was a good crowd on the mountain despite the weather.  Visibility was not too bad on the north side so we could see them coming from a fair distance, but cycling back over the top and back down it was bad, and the rain was stinging my eyes. I noticed on tonight's highlights that Cameron Meyer was squinting into it and donned sunglasses as the lesser of two evils.  Even if the visibility was not too bad, it was howling wind and rain. I was drafting miniog, and that was just to spectate.

[Tewdric]

I was amused to see the footage of Constitution Hill - the riders seem to be OK but one of the support cars got stuck on the steep cobbled section, unable to get traction.  It had to be pushed up by spectators! 

[kcass]

I notice they went the long way round to avoid the Newbridge-Beulah rollercoaster 

[Salvatore]

and after the climb from Newtown they didn't turn left at Dolfor where the real climb starts.

[ludwig]

I cycled over to Llandovery via Tregaron and Llyn Brianne to watch them. A few people turned out. Missed a great photograph as the lead riders turned onto the A40 and a young woman with a pram was right in the road in front of them. Had a long slog back then to Cardigan along the A40

[cyclone]

I cycled over to Llandovery via Tregaron and Llyn Brianne to watch them. A few people turned out. Missed a great photograph as the lead riders turned onto the A40 and a young woman with a pram was right in the road in front of them. Had a long slog back then to Cardigan along the A40

That was a bit of a ride given the carp weather Charles! 

The traffic chaos went on a bit afterwards too in Swansea. Only the keenest of spectators were to be seen along the route though.

[MattH]

Just catching up on this - our very own Nuncio and Miniog were on telly!

[saturn]

Well, we didn't see Saturn. There was a good crowd on the mountain despite the weather. 

I stopped on the outside of the hairpin, stuck my Beacon gilet on over my waterproof and had a couple of walks up to where I was expecting you to be in order to keep warm and hoping to be spotted. I wasn't expecting your MC jerseys to be visible though and I was too shy to approach random strangers and say "are you Nuncio or Miniog?" because for all I know they could mean anything in Welsh. I forgot about the ACF cap though.

How do I recognise you on the TV highlights?

Because of the weather I decided not to continue to Carreg Cennen afterwards and instead stopped at the red kite place in Llandeusant which was on my route back to Talybont on Usk.