Men's Olympic road race

On Saturday I took my family to watch the Men’s Olympic Road Race.

Having seen that there was a free cycling festival near Box Hill, along with big screen TV to watch the race, I planned to go there and watch the cyclists as they came past and catch the end of the race on the big screen.

My two boys waiting for Team GB

With the race passing Dorking at 11.35am we aimed to get there about an hour earlier. We arrived in plenty of time and got a spot near the station. There’s many vehicles, mostly police outriders, that precede the cyclists. There was a lead group that came through first several minutes before the peloton. When the peloton came through, it was at such speed.

Once the riders and all the vehicles had all passed, we headed to the Surrey Hills Road Race Festival which is only 10 minutes walk away. The Festival is based at Denbies Vineyard and was host to a live BBC feed on a big TV, cycling trade stands, food stands and a few bits of entertainment for the kids.

Watching the big screen

After seeing how busy the route around the Box Hill loop was on the TV, we decided against walking over and trying to get a view of the riders doing laps. We spent the afternoon watching the race on the TV with the huge crowd looking around the trade stands.

On one of the stands, there was a competition to set the fastest time on a virtual ride up Box Hill. My 12 year old son had a go, The bike was a little big for him but he managed it in just under 11 minutes. I had a go and after killing myself trying, I set a time of 4m51s. The fastest time of the day so far was 26s faster.

Whilst I was there I met up with Pete (waist2go.wordpress.com). I last saw him only a couple of weeks ago on the Pasty Ride.

The weather was fantastic and had to be careful not to get burned sitting in the sun watching the end of the race. It was a little disappointing for Mark Cavendish and Team GB to not do as well as expected but it was still a great day out and to be so close to the Olympic action.

There was a long queue at the train station for the journey home but a bit of waiting and 3 trains later we were back home.

Waiting for the train

Me and my boys