Tour de France opening ceremony and prologue

Here's my race report for the Tour de France knitalong.
I made it to London on Friday for the opening ceremony of the Tour de France. We set off at 11.30ish but the traffic was bad so we didn't arrive at our hotel in Edgware (north london) until 4.15pm. Just time to freshen up before our tube trip to Trafalgar Square. We met up with my son who works in London for www.cycling.tv who are covering the Tour de France on their website. Most of the cheers/applause was for the British riders, David Millar, Charlie Wigelius, Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish. However, Alexandre Vinokourov, Michael Rasmussen, Oscar Pereiro, the lovely Tom Boonen, Christophe Moreau and of course Robbie McEwan were all very popular. We ended a great evening with a veggie curry from Ravi Shankars near Euston station.

Saturday morning we made our way to Hyde Park for the prologue, an 8K time trial around central London, taking in Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Wellington Arch etc... We arrived about 11.30am and bagged a spot just before Wellington Arch so we could see the riders come the full length up Constitution Hill. It was a long day (finished at 6.15pm) and I had very tired ankles and legs but it was worth it. The caravan came through first with all the assorted freebies (junk) and some of the riders were warming up in amongst the caravan so that was great. For all you Robbie Mc fans, (in the Tour de France knitalong) he rode past us a couple of times warming up. The actual time trial started at 3pm and the weather couldn't have been better- beautifully sunny with just an occassional light cooling breeze. Time trials are great because you get to see each rider individually. I am a huge Tom Boonen fan so it was great to see him racing again (saw him last at the Tour of Britain last year) and I am also a real Iban Mayo fan (last seen at Dauphine Libre in 2004), but it was also great to see some of the other riders that I've never see in the flesh before, like Alexandre Vinokourov and Jens Voigt. I would have liked David Millar or Bradley Wiggins to win the prologue but it was good to see Cancellara get it. He did an amazing ride - way faster than anyone else. It was a pity Stewie O'Grady came off but he's a hard chap and I'm sure he's recovered by now.

We were planning to go to Tower Bridge on Sunday but never made it - too tired after Saturday so we had a lie in.

Hope your all enjoying the tour and the knitalong- got to go now to watch TdF on Eurosport