Yesterday I was lucky enough to see the very best of British sport. Heading along the M65 towards Pendle the Lancashire countryside looked glorious in the sunshine, sunshine that would become challenging for the competitors later in the day.
With a number of huge sporting events occurring on that day I thought the turnout for the National Road Race Championship would be low, how wrong was I! From families milling around the event village all trying to buy the latest kit from the Team Sky stall to enthusiast wheeling their own bikes around the village (dressed head to toe in their own club colours) there really was a buzz of excitement. I managed to catch the end of the Women’s race when Emma Pooley surged past a defending Nicole Cooke after an exhausting tussle in the last two laps.
I enjoyed more sunshine as I waited for the start of the men’s race at 12.30.
As the men lined up, being just over 5 foot became somewhat of a disadvantage as I craned my neck to get a glimpse of the riders. One man whose name caused a reaction from the crowd was a certain Mark Cavendish who was one of the riders leading off.
They all managed to make it around some of those tight Lancashire corners which just goes to highlight the skill of the riders. As the riders funneled through the start I decided to take the advice of the announcer and walk part of the route. I headed up to Annel Cross, in the shadow of Pendle Hill.
My admiration for theses fine athletes grew with every foot I walked up that hill! Those guys were going to cycle up that hill a total of 15 times at an incredible pace, racking up 180Km over the race. Along the route, there was great support for all the competitors. In what turned out to be a really hard race with only 20 of the original 100+ field of starters finishing Sky Team took an early lead.
As I headed back down to the start/finish line to see the winners cross the line I enjoyed a very welcome Mrs Dowson’s Mint Choc-chip Ice Cream.
Sufficiently cooled down to see Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh and Ian Stannard complete a remarkable 1-2-3 for Team Sky. They were not the only winners on the day though, the glorious countryside area of Pendle also won, showing its beauty off to all those there and also watching the race on the TV.
Zoe Viney
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