Rochdale - Tour of Britain 2010 start

I volunteered to help marshal at the start of the 2010 Tour of Britain on Saturday 11th Sept. As the instructions said car parking was restricted, I decided to park the car at Morrisons and ride in - its only about 1.3 miles from the centre of Rochdale. Then, it occured to me that the best bike for putting in the car was the folder... yeah, I know. I could have ridden over from Wakefield but the weather forecast said 'rain' and I was applying the first rule.

Co-incidently, I'd sold a computer monitor on Ebay the Thursday before and the purchaser lived near the centre of Rochdale. So I said I'd drop it off for him before the event. Which meant driving through Rochdale. As luck would have it, in my attempt to find his house, I went the wrong way and in doing so found a free car park. Only about 300 meters from the start line!

So I parked there and the folder never made it out of the car. Ha ha.... it chucked it down all morning too.

As a complete aside, I met Bradley Wiggins as he was exiting the portaloos - note to all competitive riders; even Wiggins agrees with my 'shit, shave and haircut' approach to lightweight cycling. So incidently does the HTC Columbia rider about to enter a cubicle. Don't know who that is, perhaps someone could enlighten. Anyway, Wiggins was kind enough to pose for a photo with a couple of youngsters, so I grabbed a quick pic with my phone....