Diary: Bikes in Barnstaple

We were in Barnstaple yesterday for the Tour of Britain, stage 2.

Barnstaple is the main town of North Devon in the southwest of England. Old and quaint, it's been ravaged by post-war planning: the old medieval streets pierced by a throbbing, flashing dual carriageway while sixties brutalism - white slats and breezeblock - infiltrates streets of older, fading yet more humane architecture.

The town seems on a cusp. There are pockets of gentrification, where the facades, decor and offers (coffee, food) are just as urbane and hipster as any bubble metropolis. Elsewhere you encounter boarded-up shops on the High Street, a general shabbiness and too much litter. There are beggars.

Barnstaple needs an injection of capital, a spring in the step and a sense of civic pride. As a typical English market town, it's far from alone in lacking these things.

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So this is the Tour of Britain swishing through their first pass of Barnstaple (the finish was also here later).

As you can see, Clare and myself were encouraged by the motorbike-marshal to join with others in blocking the main Alexandra Road so that the riders would continue straight on to Victoria Road.

Chris Froome leads the peloton on to the roundabout

... closely followed by the rest of the Sky team: G is third in the picture

We passed Chris Froome and the rest of the Sky team later in the afternoon. This was on the M5 near Taunton heading up towards Bristol (stage 3): they were in the team bus and we were heading home.