I feel I ought to be, I feel that my apathy is somehow letting the side down but I still can't raise any interest. I have nothing but admiration for the riders and don't dislike road cycling but the sense of excitement that's slowly building is passing me by.

Am I on my own?

I don't really watch sport of any kind so I don't really care much about this either. It might involve bikes, but it's not really related to how I use mine.

If I'm in the house and it's on telly then I'll watch it. I have seen the "Tour of Spain" and the "Milk Race" go past before but to be honest I think it's a bit of an anti climax. See them appear, gaze in awe at the speed they whizz past, watch them disappear into the distance, all over in a minute.

I'm with you on this Stu, I couldn't care less. Some old boy at the pub in Llany was asking if we were going to Leeds. I had no clue what he was on about, and continued to be unimpressed as he explained it to me.

I saw the start of the Tour of Britain leave from Sidmouth last year, massive anti climax. 10 seconds of riders going past, then I counted 110 cars. So dumb, hardly in the spirit of cycling is it? Maybe I'm a purist, or maybe just a curmudgeon. And like above, it just doesn't relate to how I use a bike.

I'm a huge fan of road cycling so am excited about the tour but not hugely excited about watching it at the roadside.

I prefer watching sport on TV to see everything going on although, you don't get tthe atmosphere though. I do go to the pub to watch big footie matches though to get a bit of atmosphere.....

been to watch it in france in the past . a long wet wait in the rain. never again.
I will be watching it, from the comfort of my living room, supping tea and dunking hobnobs....

mountain baker wrote: I saw the start of the Tour of Britain leave from Sidmouth last year, massive anti climax. 10 seconds of riders going past, then I counted 110 cars. So dumb, hardly in the spirit of cycling is it? Maybe I'm a purist, or maybe just a curmudgeon. And like above, it just doesn't relate to how I use a bike.

Don't take the ToB as an example of what a proper race is like. The French have it right, shut off a road for 24hr (48hr if a mountain), allow spectators to camp out along the route and generally get drunk, allow any one on a bike on the route so said drunk spectators can cheer them on, send a publicity caravan through 60min before race laden with freebies and pumping out euro-pop, cheer on racerers (any where between 10 sec and 40min depending what spot you pick), then retire to either a sociable dutch persons camper van or pub to watch the finish.

Its not about the racing its about the atmosphere. I think Yorkshire seem to have realised this and have created hubs with big screens and lots going on, so may be they will get close to doing it as well as the French

That doesn't sounds fun to me, camping by a road for a day or two, Publicity Caravan, etc etc, you still only see the riders for about a minute. Still an anti-climax. All those support vehicles, all the crap that goes with it. And they are all doped up to their eyeballs.

Otley cycle race is great. A short lap (7 or 4 km IIRC), routed through the (closed to road trafic) town centre.

So whilst the honed athletes at the top of their game whizz through every 10 or so minutes all the punters get to drink beer and eat chips for a couple of hours. Now that's road racing Yorkshire style

I'm a bit ambivalent aboutthe TdF although there's an awful lot of effort being made locally. I'll probably go to Leeds or Harrogate for something though on the off chance that it's good and as it's a bit of a "once-in-a-lifetime". I was underwhelmed when Olympic tickets were being released so didn't bother and regret it in hindsight. Most folks I know who went agreed there was something special. TdF isn't the same scale but it might capture a little bit

ToB came past the end of my road so it would have been daft not to take a look. The tdf, like most 'racing', is imho best viewed on the telly. I've been to see all sorts of motor racing and I've never had idea how it all went until I saw highlights on the tv!

Grumps : ) Doping and time-trials aside, I love the Tour. It's French cycling and the Alps and a big bike festival. Seen it up close a few times in France and it being over here is a good excuse for a road-trip, so I'm loading up a road bike for a ride up to Yorkshire, sleeping in a field and watching the race go by the next day. Will be back from 10 days off the bike 2 days before that so it'll be a steady ride, over 2 days prob.

TdF - Love it on the telly - same as Ton.
Did the Tour of Flanders last year and then watched the pro race the following day on the Oude Kwaremont cobbled climb where the atmosphere was great - women's race came past and the men's race did three laps and came past each time.... you could see the effect that Cancellara was having on Sagan on each lap - Sagan looked in tatters the third time he came up hanging onto Cancellaras wheel - we then walked 200 yards for more beers and sausage to watch the run into the finish on the big screen in the packed little village square, so the best of both worlds really. Not sure I'd bother going to a single spot on the TdF route though to watch them flash past once.
A weekend of watching Belgian cyclocross racing would be good (laps and Belgian beer seem to be a good combo)

Can't say its ever really interested me. Watching a load of people riding skinny-wheeled bikes? Blah, I'd rather go ride my knobbly tyres.

I was interested in going to watch, but I'm buggered if I'm paying some farmer to stand in a field for the privelidge...