Ride London Cycle Race

What a day for the cycle race! We finally had some wonderful rain overnight, and this morning when we walked up to see the cyclists it was pouring with rain. I had my able assistant (Gavin) holding an umbrella over me so I could get some photos without getting too much rain on my lens as the wind was blowing the rain in all directions.

I tried various positions from where to take the photos - as they were coming up the hill into the village high street I was able to get more photos of the same group as they were slower - see first extra. However, I preferred the background of the high street although it was on a downhill so the cyclists were quite fast there. I liked this one with the woman in front as today there were not that many women cyclists due to many of them partaking in yesterday's women only race.

We were tracking Alan (Gavin's cousin) all morning and I had my finger ready on the button when we were expecting him, although in the rain and at speed it was still difficult to identify him, but I did get some shots of him. He enjoyed the race and did it is 5 hours 14 minutes although he was hoping for a 5 hour race - I think the weather was a factor as he said the downhills were much slower than expected, due to slippery roads. The pro race only set off at 1.20pm and are coming through our village around now, but with most of the famous elite cyclists still at the Tour de France, and given the horrible weather conditions, I decided not to go up to the high street to see them come through.