Tour of Buckinghamshire: 19th - 20th Sept

My latest project is the creation of a new cycling classic: The Institute Tour of Buckinghamshire (or possibly the Instituto Giro di Buckinghamshire). The concept is to put together a group of twenty+ road bikes divided into four colour coordinated ‘teams’ and to affect all the characteristics of an established stage race without the actual racing. I want people to experience the bunch! the peloton! the gruppo! and the amazing speed bonus that comes along with group riding.

To Tim Krabbe's loathed 'non-racers' we will appear as a splash of colour against the autumnal sky of their dull lives; a burning comet that blazes and is gone. To 'The Man' we will be an ambiguity; a contest or not a contest; a weekend ride or a traffic violation? To the participants we will be almost cinematic in our beauty; a mirror to history; an ever changing collage of colour and form. Am I losing the plot? Possibly, so on with the plan...

The idea is to make it accessible to everyone (I especially want a good gender balance) while capturing the spirit of a Tour style ‘peloton’. To give the relevant atmosphere I intend to:

• Mark/map the course with appropriately enigmatic directional symbols
  
• Issue riders with a unique Tour of Buckinghamshire 'dossard' (rider number)


• Have a neutral service vehicle and broom wagon


• Have a feed station with hand made 'ToB' musettes (feed bags)


• Include some intermediate sprints for four nominated team leaders and their domestiques


• Book an appropriate chateau as our Ville d’etape


• Hire a masseur to sooth the aching limbs


• Have a champagne parade to the finish

Prologue time trial
For a bit of fun team leaders will time trial over a 1km loop for the honour of starting the race in ‘yellow’.

Stage 1
‘Stage 1’ will consist of three hours of riding, augmented by an optional two hour 'Mountain stage' to Great Missenden, and will terminate at our Ville d’etape chateau near Aylesbury. This will be the Hartwell House Spa. There will be massage, dinner in a French style and a chance to see the Roubaix documentary 'A Sunday in Hell'. Breakfast will be late, continental and hopefully with optional steaks (a great favourite of racers in days gone by).

Stage 2
The commencement of stage 2 will be delayed by the traditional 'workers protest'. In this case the worker will be me and the protest will be my need to commence riding no earlier than 10:30am on a hangover. The bunch will ride a further four hours which will feature one intermediate sprint before the final champagne parade (served from the team cars) to the finish.

This will be one of the crowning glories of The Institute and you absolutely have to come. Don’t worry about the bikes, the distance or anything – I have it all in hand. The provisional route is shown below and the date will be some time in September.