Never Say Never Again is the title of the rather poor Sean Connery remake of his earlier James Bond film, Thunderball. I've been a Bond fan for as long as I can remember, my Tour de 007 DB5 collection being just the tip of the iceberg of the memorabilia I have collected over the years. I even have a rose in my garden called 'For Your Eyes Only'!
Following my recent trip north to Cumbria, "never say never .." took on another meaning, one concerning my other love; that of cycling. Contrary to my talk of 'never again' in my Tour de Fitness blog 'Why Bother With Sportives', I somehow found myself signing up for the inaugural Cross Boarder Sportive - The Raid, on the Sunday following the Tour of Britain, ahead of my return home to Devon. The Raid was a 50 mile route starting and finishing at Lanercost Priory, north of Brampton and crossing briefly into Scotland. The longer 80 mile route, called The Invasion, completed an additional 30 mile circuit further into Scotland following the first food stop.
I had tentatively signed up for the 50 miler so that, should I still be up north, I could be back in time for lunch. Also, as I have said many a time, having such a short attention span, I find much more than 60 miles a bit dull!
A short video of the first 30 miles
What made this ride far from dull, was the company I had for the first 30 miles. I was fortunate to join up with two local cyclists who earlier this year had ridden the London to Paris and had planned their arrival to coincide with the conclusion of the Tour de France .. what an experience! One of the guys was having a hard time with the Cumbrian hills, so it was far from a quick ride, but what pleased me most was how we each stuck and pulled together. At the 30 mile point, the first food stop, my road went south and theirs, they doing the 80 miler, headed back into Scotland. I was impressed with how the struggling guy pushing on although feeling I had at least the additional distance left in my legs, lunch back in Brampton beckoned, so I bid farewell and started out alone on the final leg of my ride.
For the next 20 miles, as per my more my usual sportive experience, I saw not one other rider until I was in sight of the finish line! While it was not a fast ride, I did complete in position 20/130 overall and 5/38 in my age category. This was a very informal well organised event. The roads were very quiet and for much of the route it even felt like a closed road event. Would I do it again? "Never say never .."!
I was up in the north, near Carlisle, last week visiting my folks where, coincidentally, the Tour of Britain made an appearance not once but twice!
My first experience of Tour was in 2009 when I saw from my office window, the riders stream past on their way from Hatherleigh to Yeovil. In this year, a now very familiar Team Sky rider, Ben Swift riding for Team Katusha, won the stage, the British Champion Kristian House riding for Rapha-Condor, now a regular pundit on ITV4, led the breakaway through Seaton and Edvald Boasson Hagen, riding for Barloworld, was the overall winner. It is hard to believe now, being 4 years before catching the cycling bug, that this event meant so little to me, it was only the mass of colour passing before my peripheral vision that made me take note!
Tour of Britain 2009 Stage 7 - Seaton
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Kristian House - 2009 Stage 7 - Seaton
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I was thrilled to be able to catch the Tour of Britain again in 2013 when it came through Sidmouth, something my long term readers will remember from my post on Day 200. Last year, I took a late holiday in Scotland and went Cycling on Mull during the Tour, so missed it coming through Exeter and across Dartmoor. This year, Devon have the Rugby World Cup and so declined to bid for the Tour again which meant the closest it was going to come to the South West would be Stoke! It was therefore the perfect combination of having time on my hands, due to my sabbatical and already having plans to visit my parents in Cumbria that gave me the opportunity last week to be a real ToB groupie!
It all kicked off on the Tuesday with Stage 3, Cockermouth to Floors Castle, and a 30 mile cycle over to see the sprint finish through Carlisle. I was one of the first to roll up so had a great view. I also attracted interest from the local press and received a full column write-up in the following day's newspaper!
2015 Stage 3 - Carlisle Sprint Finish
Stage 5, on Thursday, Prudhoe to Hartside Fell, came though Brampton along Hardian's Wall and concluded with a final climb of eight kilometres to the summit finish on Hartside Fell above Penrith in the Eden District. My plan was to catch the riders at both these locations, with Brampton being a short distance from my folks and by taking a more direct route up Hartside, riding with my old Rock 2 Roll CC mates, I would be able to beat the pro riders to the finish, they having to do a spin out to Ullswater first!
Tour of Britain Winner Edvald Boasson Hagen - Stage 5 - Brampton
Kristian House - Stage 5 - Hartside Fell
In the above picture of Kristian House, you'll have to believe me that Bradley Wiggins is in this group, behind and to the left. He must have seen me coming as in every one of my shots he is obscured by other riders or I just manage to get the back of his head!
It was an amazing day, great views, great weather and some great cycling. I've recently got back into my GoPro, so here too is a little video of the ride from Brampton up to Hartside Fell ..
... and this was the route.
Finally a couple more coincidences. The 2015 Tour celebrated the first double winner since it was relaunched in 2004, this was Edvald Boasson Hagen, the cyclist who last won it in 2009 when the event was first to appear in my 'peripheral vision'. The second co-incidence is that Kristian House was also riding on this Tour, just as he did back in 2009 .. as evidenced by my shot on Hartside and Alex Moorhead's photo from Seaton.
Postscript:
If interested, you can check out a few more photos from the Tour of Britain in my Flickr album.
