Tour Prologue (or, "Free Souvenir Programs!! Please, take one, I mean it!")

It's been a busy few days. Saturday, Ed and I took the tube to Hyde Park Corner after breakfast, thought we'd have time to look around at the festival/displays for the Tour there before staking out a spot - but all of a sudden it was almost noon and it was starting to get crowded around the barriers on to the route, so we picked a spot (just past the final corner in Hyde Park where they turned to come back) and stayed there.

We had some Belgians next to us - which was good, they knew all the Belgian riders by sight so it was useful to hear "Allez Axel" or "Go Wim" when all we could see was a T-Mobile or Predictor-Lotto jersey go
by when the riders were warming up (ie. no numbers on yet, no team car
following with rider name). There were riders starting to warm up
along the course at about 12:30 pm, the caravan came through just
after 1 pm and riders were still weaving through the caravan to warm
up, then the warm up continued after the caravan as well.

Freebie count (from the Caravan and displays): Skoda hat (for Ed),
some Haribo candies, a county of Kent coaster, some Tour postcards, an
Orange broadband cardboard "periscope". We can add that to the little
foam bikes from the Opening Ceremony (that got blown into the crowd
rather than confetti).

Oh yeah, and our multitude of "free souvenir programs" - we got one on
Friday night, actually someone nearby us got one for us, and we were
concerned we might not be able to get another - shouldn't have
worried. You could have taken a stackful (at least where we were) on
Saturday and they'd probably thank you. One program girl was
particularly persistent, I think the call "Free Souvenir Programs" with the hint of desperation in her voice is etched into my brain
permanently (desperate as no one took any by the end of the prologue
because they already had one or more!).

Anyway, neat to see the riders come by on their warmup, initially some
chatting in groups but more serious and more speed with subsequent
laps. Big cheers for the first rider out for real, even though no one
really knew who he was (and I don't actually remember who it was, I
have to admit - Delgano I think it was). Big cheers for all the
British riders, and the father next to us had conditioned his 10-year
old son to be an Armstrong and now Hincapie fan - the kid said after
George went by, " I stood here all that time just to see that?" but he
seemed happy to have seen Big George.

We heard snippets of actual results - Dave Z in the lead, O'Grady
would have passed him had he not crashed, then Kloeden. Some Brits
near us were keeping track of times as best they could - between them
and our own observations we knew that Millar wasn't going to win,
Hincapie seemed fast as did Kloeden, and that Cancellara seemed to
blast them all away. So, we weren't surprised when we made our way
back near one of the big screens to see Cancellara in the yellow
jersey.

Really tired afterwards (and during) from standing so long ... so we
decided we wouldn't even go to the race start for Stage 1 (had already
decided not to go to Canterbury). But in the end, we saw the stage
finish in a neat way anyway...