There once was a man from Kent.....(day three)

Woke up to a beautiful morning on race day. I got up extra early to make sure that I had some time to go for a run before breakfast. Lori has been nice enough to get up with the girls while I am out running the footpaths of Ulcombe in the mornings here in Kent. Awesome running. You basically tromp through sheep pastures, wheat fields, little bits of spooky woods, and villages. Never quite knowing where you are going, sometimes getting lost, until you spot the next gate into another pasture or something. Not unlike hashing.... Lyssa and Pete, you guys would go crazy for this stuff. Shiggy, nettle beds and all.

But enough of that. Found my way home after pretending I was a foot messenger for William the Conqueror, couldn't believe my stink, took a shower and came down to our daily "full english breakfast". Let's just say, it's good and includes quarter inch thick bacon, sausage and plenty of marmelade.



We reviewed our game plan again and got ready to set out for our desination of Sissinghurst. It was situated between the closed road sections leading from Tonbridge and into Tenterden, so we hoped we would have an easy into the area, close enough to walk if we had to ditch the car. We were right on the money. Drove right in, right on time (about 4 hours to race time...) as people were beginning to pour into town.



We quickly found a spot on some nice grass, right up against the fence on the street where the riders were set to go through. And it was right across the street from the little carnival and hog roast that the town had set up for the event. Couple of little kid rides, a bouncy house, some steam tractors, and some cold champagne, which mom and Lance secured in order to get some cups for our 3 bottles of wine. ;)



Elena didn't stay happy on this ride. "Too wiggly" she said. Anyway, if you've never seen the tour, it basically involves hours of sitting around in the sun having a picnic and imbibing in beverages of choice, talking with your neighbors from whereever they have come from, and then watching the parade of sponsor vehicles, police, swag pushers, reporters, and support vehicles race up the road ahead of the riders. Lori was happy.....



Then, all of a sudden, you hear helicopters through the trees, and then the roadway clears, and all of a sudden police motorcycles (French Gendarme actually) come racing through and the riders whip past you faster than you can register who it is. In our case, we got two shots because there was 5 man break in progress through our section with about a 4 min gap. So we had 4 minutes waiting for the peloton to blast by. That was pretty awesome.





I only took video of the ride itself, and haven't figured out how to isolate the clips in the video to show the actual race. Or even better, convert the video to something more acceptable in size so that I can load it onto YouTube. ALVAREZ, HELP!!!! I'm a novice on a MAC. (I love it by the way). Johnny, send me an email with instructions on .AVI conversion to something smaller. Also maybe how to get clips out of video. Thanks partner!

Plus, I have some bonus footage for Pete and Pat once I figure this out..... ;)

I would spend time on it now, but we are preparing to catch the train to London today. Go to the Tate museum of modern art and probably the London children's museum for the kiddies. Back tonight to give it another go.

Cheers!