Out riding with the pros!

Let me say that again. Today I was out riding with the pros. Yep, what a start to the New Year!

The day started a little bit edgily. I was supposed to receive the text containing the secret location for my start point at 7.30am but nothing came. I knew I had to be there (wherever that was), by 8.30ish so I started to cycle into central London anyway. At 8.00 I stopped and checked my phone but nothing so I called my wife to see if there was an email revealing all, but no, there was no email. I was just putting my phone in my pocket when it beeped and sure enough there was my text telling me to get to Guildhall in the City of London by 8.30 when the pros would arrive. So I was about 10 miles away from there at that point and I had less than half an hour to make it. This would not be a problem on open clear roads but for the London commuter this is not so straightforward. However, after much furious pedalling and weaving in and out of traffic I did actually manage to get there dead on time.

When we registered we were given a SkyRide fluorescent bib to wear. There were 2 other meeting points like mine with about 100 competition winners/riders at each and each meeting point had a selection of pros. We were lucky to have a group of 8 or more pros and among them were a couple of favourites: Edvald Boassen Hagen (future TdF winner me thinks) and Russell Downing. I have to say it was bloody freezing hanging around which we had to while the riders took questions and signed autographs. At 9.00 we all got ready to set off and to the chimes of the Guildhall bells we set off for a quick circuit of the City and then along the Embankment to link up with the 2 other groups along the Mall.

There was a great sound as we set off of a 100+ riders 'clipping in'. Clack, clack, clack....I didn't quite know what it was at first but I got used to it throughout the morning. We had to comply with the laws of the road like stopping at red lights so this made progress quite slow at first. There was a nice moment when we got to have a blast along by the Thames and this was the first time I have ridden in a large group at any kind of speed. Good experience for me.

Once we got to The Mall we started to converge with the other two groups. We did 2 or 3 circuits around St James Park and then they filtered us to the side so all 300 comp winners + the pros were in 1 group. From that point they got us going in one group with Team Sky leading being filmed and photographed and we did three more circuits of the Park before they gave us a drink and goodie bag and the pros disappeared to their press conference. All in all I rode over 16km with them which was more than I was expecting. It was really cold and understandably stop-start but there were times when we got to up the pace and that was great fun.

I took loads of photos but they are so dreadful that I won't post them here. There is a video and some pics on the Team Sky website and of course other news channels covered it too. If you see a bloke wearing a LiveStrong helmet with a red backpack and a bike with no bar tape and green tyres then that's me. At about 2 mins 03secs into this news report you will briefly see that bloke (you will have to use the pause button to spot me I think).

I enjoyed the experience and it was a rare chance to 'ride' with these guys. It was good for me to ride in a group and across the day I put in over 65km on the bike which is all good. Now I must get that bike ordered so I can really put in the miles.

*Update - here's a link to the route we took. Some nice little bursts of speed but a long time to do 16km.