Tour of Britain races through the Chilterns

HUNDREDS of local people, including many from Thame, lined the lanes and hills around Chinnor, Princes Risborough and the Chiltern Hills on Friday (12/09), to see the top guns of World cycling, race by in the Friends LifeTour of Britain road race.

Sir Bradley Wiggins (front) rounds a bend, captured by Benjamin Kelsey

Two of the most popular places for spectators to gather were undoubtedly Chinnor Hill, where Thame’s Mark Ansell commentated for BBC Radio Oxford, and Kop Hill, where a lively and enthusiastic contingent from the High Wycombe Cycling Club, were able to spur on their heroes, including Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and the day’s Stage winner, Alex Dowsett racing for the Movistar team.

High Wycombe CC cheer a Belkin Pro Cycling team racer up Kop Hill; He’s just behind Tom Moses of Rapha Condor JLT

John Francis from Thame, a member of the High Wycombe Cycle Club, was there. “It was so good to be part of an occassion where you felt so ‘at one’ with, what feels like, the great family of cyclists,” he said.

“With other great sporting occassions, you feel remote from the action, but standing there on Kop Hill, it felt more like a shared experience because you knew you’d done the climb yourself. It was good fun and so exciting to be within touching distance of our cycling heroes. I hope the competitors got some encouragement from those who came out on the road to support them.”

The Tour of Britain is the UK’s top professional cycle race, and took place from 7th – 14th September across England and Wales. Stage six on Friday was a 203km route starting in Bath and finishing in Hemel Hempstead. It included 60 km of undulating Oxfordshire countryside from Wantage to Chinnor, with the testing ‘King of the Mountain’ climb up Chinnor Hill.

The race passed Wallingford, passed through Nettlebed, Cookley Green, Christmas Common and Chinnor before heading off into Buckinghamshire. Part of the route used the Chilterns Cycleway, the very popular on-road cycling route which was launched four years ago. The Cycleway is a 170km circular route which passes through some of the best scenery in the Oxfordshire Chilterns.

Anyone who has been inspired by the professionals to get on their bike can find out more about the Chilterns Cycleway and other great local cycling routes at www.chilternsaonb.org/cycleway

The hosting of Stage six of the Tour of Great Britain was the culmination of the work of the Cycle Chilterns Project, which teamed up with Dacorum Borough Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Oxfordshire County Council and the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.