BIKE BLENHEIM PALACE

Blenheim, Oxfordshire, Sunday 28^th September 2008.

What started out as being a “works jolly” for me turned out to be quite a good ‘season closer’. It’s not everyone who can say they’ve competed in a time-trial with the mighty “Hutch” in the morning, and then locked horns with a three-times Vuelta winner in a World Championship event in the afternoon, is it?

In this it’s inaugural year, the Bike Blenheim Palace cycling festival played host to three main sporting events, plus a host of other bike-related attractions and activities. At crack of dawn, there was a 20km time-trial (overseen by CTT), then mid-morning an Elite road race followed by the main event at noon: the 2008 Brompton World Championships (both overseen by British Cycling). Sideshows to the competitive events included a mountainbike trials display team, a bicycle polo championship, Go-Ride Cycle skills for children and Benson Vintage Cycle club, plus many trade stands and the opportunity for families to ride round the parklands after the racing had finished – the first time in it history that Blenheim had opened its 2,100 acres of parkland to cycling.

The early-morning time-trial saw 230 riders compete round three laps of a rolling 6.5km circuit around the closed roads of the palace grounds. Setting off into very low sun and patchy fog, I was very tentative round the tight bends, narrow bridges and bumpy surfaces during most of my first lap.  Plus, I hadn’t really warmed-up nearly enough beforehand so the gradients and initial strain came as a bit of a shock to the legs. For laps two and three I’d got the hang of it all and I put a bit more effort in, eventually crossing the line in 30:41, placing me 14^th overall with the super-human Michael Hutchinson (unsurprisingly) winning with a time of 26:51.

There then followed an exciting road race which Dave Clarke (Team Lacuna) won.

Then at midday, 400 Brompton owners/riders took their places for the start of the 3^rd Brompton World Championships. The first two Worlds had been held in Barcelona – the Spanish are mad-keen for the quirky, English folding commuters’ bike and there was a large Spanish presence at this years event. They had even gone to the lengths of drafting in something of a star to guarantee them a Spanish champion…

As mentioned, the day was a ‘works jolly’ thing for me. The company I work for is very ‘into’ Bromptons and we managed to scrape together a team of five willing volunteers to compete in the race. I don’t personally own a Brompton so had to borrow an aging, high-mileage, battle-scarred example from Work which - despite my best efforts - didn't really fit. Also the five-speed Sturmey Archer hub had seen many better days, and only three of its gears worked.

The rules of the race were very specific: competitors must wear a cycling helmet, jacket, collared shirt and tie. No Lycra or sportswear was allowed. Various prizes  would be  awarded for all the usual categories, together with one for the best dressed rider. Starting grids had been meticulously laid out by the organisers: four grids each with 100 spaces where, before the race, every rider had neatly folded and parked his or her Brompton in their allotted space. Then at one minute intervals in a Le Mans-type start, waves of 100 riders at a time would run to their bikes, unfold them, walk them to the start line where they could then mount-up and start racing. An electronic timing chip would be triggered as they crossed the start line, and triggered again when they finished two laps later.

It must have looked like something from Monty Python: 400 mild-mannered people neatly lined up behind some tape, all immaculately turned-out but wearing helmets and shorts.

Then a horn blew. Chaos ensued.

A multi-national rabble of eccentrics, kicking and biting their way through a crowd of their rivals, made a bee-line for their individual bikes. I hadn’t properly practiced the correct (and hopefully speedy) unfolding procedure so found myself ham-fistedly fumbling with all the hinges and clamps as almost all the other 99 riders in my batch ran or rode their bikes out of the starting grid ahead of me. Eventually I had assembled something which resembled a bike, and wheeled the contraption to the startline, praying it would hold together for the duration.

Memories of my poor start were soon wiped away, though, as I weaved my way at speed through the mess of clumsy cyclists aboard their inappropriate and unstable bikes. A season spent training, racing and timetrialling began to pay off and by the end of the first lap I had climbed to third or fourth in my batch of 100. At the end of the first lap, the large crowd of spectators that had gathered around the finish was very vocal as I tore after the two or three guys who had stretched out a lead. But try as I might, I couldn’t catch them and for the duration of the second lap they stayed away from me. As I neared the end of the race, a bunch of Spaniards (who went on to claim the Team prize as ‘Cap Problema’) from the second wave of riders came screaming passed me in a 4-man team time-trial formation, all wearing matching smart, tan jackets. I’ll bet their ties matched, too.

A guy dressed as Evel Knievel (in a jacket and tie style) pulled wheelies along the length of the finishing straight. Many, many riders wore fancy dress. A guy wearing a comedy gorilla’s head never heard me shout “on yer right!” Some puffed on huge Havana cigars as they rode round. Plus-fours, dickie-bows, tweed, top-hat and tails… they were all there. All pedaling as fast as they could round the 13km course. I can safely say that I have never been to a race where everyone – especially the spectators – were all smiling or laughing. Nice, eccentric, surreal fun.

So, despite giving it my best effort I’d finished in 21^st place out of 364 finishers, and my team (CycleCity Guides) had finished 6^th overall. Not too shabby. Then at the prize-giving afterwards, a diminutive Spaniard took to the British Cycling stage to receive the Runner-Up prize. Nudges, whispers and double-takes abounded in the stunned crowed as his name was called out over the PA:

“Roberto Heras!”.

What… THE Roberto Heras??

A very sheepish looking three-times Vuelta á España winner, Tour and Giro stage-winner and former teammate of Lance Armstrong from US Postal days shook hands with His Grace the Duke of Marlborough and collected his Second Prize of a Brooks saddle. The winner of the race and now Brompton World Champion 2008 – who had pipped Snr Heras by only three seconds ­(Alastair Kay, an Elite Cat roadie riding for York Cycleworks  who’d only ever ridden a Brompton for half-an-hour the day before) was understandably absolutely beside himself with shock and surprise at taking the biggest scalp of his racing career… on a Brompton.

All in all Bike Blenheim Palace was a great day out made even better by spectacular surroundings and (luckily) fantastic weather. 3,500 people had attended, and whether they had been there to compete, spectate or ride round the grounds after the competitive events had finished, everyone had enjoyed a great day of cycling.

The consensus was that Bike Blenheim Palace had been a huge success and there would more than likely be another one next year.