Today saw the first stage of the first ever Friends Life Women’s Tour of Britain – we’ll be following the action from within the peloton courtesy of the Matrix Vulpine team and photographer Paul Calver who’s embedded with them for the duration. Stage One took the riders on a 93.8Km route from Oundle to Northampton taking in the rolling hills of Northamptonshire.
Every day as soon as the racing is done Paul will upload a gallery of images telling the story of the team’s day. Here’s his stage one gallery. it was a baptism of fire for Matrix Vulpine girls and Harriet Owen in particular as Robin Godden from Vulpine explains:
“After 35km’s Harriet was involved in a crash leaving her with a smashed helmet and a 15km chase back to the peloton. Just as she bridged the gap a mechanical stopped her again. But a quick change of bike and she was on her way.
“The final 30kms were fast as Specialized Lululemon & Rabo Liv could smell a sprint.
Our girls were represented as Jessie rode to 18th with Helen safely in the bunch & Jo, Penny, Mel & Harriet just behind.
‘Stage one was fantastic; great racing and big crowds.
“Bring on Stage 2!”
The size of the crowds, on a day not blessed with great weather was a source of comment afterwards, both stage winner Emma Johansson and World Champion, Marianne Vos were said to be shocked at the size and volume of roadside support. Indeed such was the noise that Lizzie Armistead who led with 500m to go said afterwards that she had been fooled by the size of the crowd in to going too early – she eventually finished 8th after her Boels-Dolmans team had done the bulk of work in chasing down French national champion, Elise Delzenne in the final kilometres
For full news and results from today's stage visit thetour.co.uk and you can find out more about the Matrix Vulpine by visiting their website http://www.onthedrops.cc/team/
15 thoughts on “Behind the scenes at the Friends Life Women’s Tour with Matrix Vulpine – Stage 1”
I can see my hand (and
I can see my hand (and camera) in that finish line shot. Cracking day – crowds were a lot bigger than I was expecting.
I wish the beeb or any other
I wish the beeb or any other broadcaster had seen fit to show live footage or at least extended highlights; such a breakthrough event for the calendar and instead we see repeats of the 2013 Giro on Eurosport??
9pm highlights package on
9pm highlights package on ITV4 https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/itv4 from http://prowomenscycling.com/2014/05/04/womens-tour-of-britain-2014-live/
zzgavin wrote:9pm highlights
brilliant – thanks for pointing out!
I agree but ITV4 have the
I agree but ITV4 have the rights – highlights in the evening – presumably part of a bigger package including TdF and ToB. Covering an event live is big money (as opposed to quickly editing the tapes afterwards). At the TdF they have two ‘copters up at all times relaying the pictures between the bikes and the sat trucks – that’s pretty spendy but they can recoup it by selling it across the world – the audience isn’t there to justify that investment for this race in the UK (yet) never mind across Europe but hopefully it will come. From memory I can’t recall whether the men’s ToB was live last year either.
Bearing in mind that we have
Bearing in mind that we have to wait a week for brief highlights of Womens World Cup events (broadcast on BBC Red Button), I think that a daily highlights package on a terrestrial TV channel is very good going for the first year. It shows the faith that the broadcasters have in the promoters to get the crowds out & package a good race for the teams. Just think of where cycling on TV was only 5 years ago…
Men’s ToB coverage was live
Men’s ToB coverage was live last year on tv. At
East the last 2-3 hours were for most if not all of the stages
And Eurosport 2 @ 22:00.
And Eurosport 2 @ 22:00. 😀
A cracking first stage. ITV4
A cracking first stage. ITV4 doing great stuff with limited resources, although that said, I missed on-screen info about km remaining, separation, etc.
Hope to make it down to Bury St Edmund’s on Sunday for the finish of stage 5. Guess it’ll have to be early to beat the crowds 🙂
Wifey’s out on Sat, so I’ll
Wifey’s out on Sat, so I’ll be turning up at Welwyn 🙂
Well done Jessie and the team
Well done Jessie and the team
I sneak out and watch then
I sneak out and watch then just outside of Hinkley today if possible. Let’s given them as much support as possible!
Here’s my photo set from Day
Here’s my photo set from Day 1 – bloody hard getting decent shots yesterday due to the sheer volume of people selfishly turning up to watch and getting in my way 🙂
Right – off to Bedford….
Awesome race and a great
Awesome race and a great highlights programme. I had wondered why Lizzie went so early, but the crowds volumes are a plausible reason I guess.
Also, I can’t help thinking that with a smaller field, the organisers are able to be a bit more flexible with the route – some of those roads I’d be happy to use on a club run or the like, whereas men’s races tend to be on nasty A roads that you wouldn’t bother with unless you had to. If it ever comes up north (it needs to not be restricted to the current area) I could be tempted to ride the stage on a Sunday morning.
ITV4 Woman’s tour
With Ned
ITV4 Woman’s tour
With Ned and Jose Been
Excellent 😀