Sikh as a Dug

The roar of the crowd was deafening as the peloton reached the village of Holme. The riders were about to ascend the famous climb of Holme Moss, the hill where I managed to finish in last place when I've raced up it during a local time trial. I love that hill. "Shut the ...." up was the though in my head as tears welled up inside me. Rosemary and I were at a corporate party near the finishing line in Sheffield and the deafening crowd were people talking away when we were trying to watch and listen to the race on the big TV. "Don't be a big baby" I thought to myself but I wanted to be with my people on the hill.

If I'm walking along the street and hear the whir of a chain, I turn around exited to see what type of two wheeled machine is coming towards me. The smell of bike lube and tyres is something I will never become fed up with, or standing in a bike shop for hours fascinated by the shiny things. Even the day before, I had seen an Alpine Stars and correctly identified it as a DX model and could have told Rosemary the full spec if she was even half interested. Cycling has been good to me and I'm lucky to have met many of my heroes. I've turned up tiddly at at Rosemary's after a late night drinking with Sean Kelly, I've chatted in the shower with Chris Boardman, hung out with Chris Hoy and even met Mario Cippolini. The sport is in my blood.

"Let's go outside" I said to Rosemary. At least I could see the finish of the stage, although I did feel I was missing a life experience not being on the side of a hill watching the riders go by. I cheered up immediately on seeing a sikh on a bike wearing a world champion turban. We walked away from the finishing line, trying to find a gap on the barriers to watch and eventually found one 600m away. The commentary, coming over a tannoy, firstly in French and then English started to get me exited. Gee was on the front of the peloton driving hard for Chris Froome and Team Sky. They were getting closer! Then we could see the helicopter, signalling that the race would soon be upon us. I felt sick with excitement.

The lead cars and motorbikes came through....the helicopter getting closer too! A rider came into sight! It was Nibaldi! He seemed to have a big gap! Although Nibaldi rides for my least favourite team, he's an exciting rider, so Rosemary and I willed him on! The leading group then went past and we didn't think they had a hope of catching Nibaldi but they nearly did. He won though and got the yellow jersey too.

We stayed until the last rider came through, a Lampre man smashing it to reach the cut off following a crash. I think he made it. We headed towards the finish where the team buses were. I saw Rod from Team Sky but thought better of shouting "cooee Rod". Occasionally saying hello in the canteen queue doesn't really count as being best buds after all!

We headed back to the corporate event and had a cream tea followed by a BBQ. The most stunning achievement of the day was that there was a free bar and I didn't have as much as a sip of bevy! The day ended well and I was quite happy to have had two fun days at the a Tour de France, especially finding myself being part of it the day previous. Chapeau Yorkshire.......the largest free event in the world was bound to be a success in the county of the white rose!