Tour de France Recce

I was walking to find a good place to view the cyclists and these guys were trying out the route ahead of the main event. I found my way through the woods and got on the footpath I was looking for (I'm never very good in woodland - it just disorients me and I don't know Greno woods very well. My compass set me on the right track - even though it seemed to me to be sending me in the wrong direction.)

I'd just settled down to eat my sandwiches when I was joined by a man who was walking his dog who stopped to chat. Then these guys arrived and one was taking photos of his mates as they arrived up the hill. This is one of the steepest climbs on the route - short but steep). I got chatting to one of the men who was telling me a little about their fund raising efforts and that they were joined for the day by a few other non local cyclists. The guy in green is from Washington. The locals were used to the hills but the visitors were finding it hard going.

So my research using the OS map took me to a good spot for viewing the race, the only problem is that it's in Sky Sports top ten of places to view the race. So there could be thousands there on Sunday. As the man with the dog said, `I'm not sure where they are all going to park'. We're hoping to walk from a spot a couple of miles from home - giving us another 4 to 5 miles to walk. There might be lots of cyclists in that car-park so we might not manage it.

p.s. this stretch of the road which comes up the hill from Oughtibridge is known locally as The Jawbone.

p.s. The path I chose to return on went through a partially cut hay field, which was full of dancing Ringlet butterflies, a few meadow Browns and quite a lot of what I think were Large Skippers (on any other day I'd be pleased to have had one of these as my blip photo.