Les Maillots Jaunes

It is Thursday and time for another sultry early summer evening's ride out with the Pedallers. While Chris Froome crashed out on Stage 5 of the TdF yesterday without getting an opportunity to don the yellow jersey, upwards of 10 Maillots Jaunes took to the Marshwood lanes for a 30 mile incident free spin. Following on from Tuesday's inaugural 40 mile AVP ride, the legs are certainly getting a good work out this week, and it is far from over!

You'll have previously read in my latest blogs that I've acquired a GoPro camera for the bike, with the aim of capturing some of the RideLondon highlights; a ride you'll also have heard me mention taking part in on Sunday 10th August in aid of Diabetics UK, fundraising for which I'm pleased to confirm has now reached 75% of my target. Many thanks to all who have given so generously to this cause, it is so very much appreciated!

Anyway, back to the GoPro. The camera joined me on the 2 hour ride, it's battery just about lasting the course. I can see me having to carry a number of spares for the RideLondon 100 miler as I can't afford not to capture the finish along the Mall! We did talk on the ride about whether I could wire in a reserve battery but I'm not sure of the practicalities of this and am not sure I want to start compromising the waterproof casing by adding holes to accommodate the required wiring loom. No, spare batteries will probably be the way to go. I am also not that settled yet with the mounting. While I like in some ways to see my hands flipping the gear changers, I'm less enamoured with the sound of clicking from, I'm assuming, the brake and gear cables rubbing against the casing. This is fine when wanting no audio or if one was to overlay a musical backing track - more on this later - but I'd like to be able to catch some of the ambient sounds from the ride. I have, therefore, another bracket on order which may resolve this, we'll see on the next ride.

Once back in the 'film studio', it was time to view the rushes from the ride and start the editing. For this video, I decided to add a backing track and thought it most apt to have selected Kraftwerk's "Tour de France" which I feel really fit the mood and pace of the final cut. I hope you agree ...

Feedback has so far been positive, but everyone likes to be a critic and I see now why most directors would probably not want to hear half of what these have to say! Funnily, the main criticism has not been about the filming, direction or production but rather the Pedallers themselves.

Anon1 dropped me a note to say .. "Can’t say I’m impressed – their road behaviour leaves a lot to be desired – straggling all over the place! In my club cycling days (bla bla Wheelers) we kept in a tight bunch, two abreast and together in one group. If there were cars overtaking then we went into single file. The run leader was always up front and the rear guard would shout ‘oil up’ to signify traffic about to overtake. All very disciplined!". As creator of this movie, I take full responsibility for this perception, as I left all the dull disciplined shots on the cutting room floor, finding much more interesting to show the seven minuets or less of the Pedallers regrouping or freely manoeuvring on the traffic free roads .. and not having a motorcycle film crew to shoot the peleton pass and race to the next vantage point, this way I get to include most of the cyclist at some point in the film. Thup .. the sound of a ball of printed email hitting the bottom of the bin.

Anon2 suggested we made a lot of stops ... um, well yes, the AVP's doctrine, unlike many cycling clubs, is that we 'never leave a man behind' and in an 8 minute film of a 2 hour ride, I did find these more social interactions the most interesting pieces to show, believing that the back of a head or the rising and lowing of a lycra clad behind may not make the best viewing! Sigh .. the sound of me exhaling a deep breath. Time to get back to the cycling!

We had a great ride out covering, as on Tuesday's ride, new and previously unchartered roads. Coincidentally, we did take a similar direction to that of Tuesday's circuit, including another pass over the road undergoing resurfacing which was more akin to riding the Paris Roubaix cobbled sections which poor Froomie never made it to yesterday .. I wonder if his Pinarello would have performed as well as my Specialized Roubaix .. we'll never know ;)