The Tour comes back to Britain in 2027, for the first time since 2014, and it will present its teams at Edinburgh Castle on Wednesday 30 June, two days before the start. You will have to pay to get in, from £27, which has not happened since Leeds in 2014. There will be bagpipes, drums, Highland dancers, music written for the occasion. Fine, you put the noisy things at the front.
What I look at in a presentation is the order. They go on stage team by team, the kopman (the team leader) in front, he says three words into the microphone, and behind him there is always a lad at the end of the row, the one who smiles in the photo and gets cropped in the edit. That lad already knows where he will be in three days. At our presentation I was at the end, in the chassis-sponsor shirt, the heaviest in the bunch, and the speaker said my name the way you read out an address.
After the presentation comes the race. Edinburgh on Friday 2 July, heading to Carlisle, then Keswick to Liverpool, then Welshpool to Cardiff, entirely in Wales. Three days in three countries of the same kingdom. At the back, as everywhere, there will be an office, somebody with the percentage, somebody with the watch. The office does not go on the castle stage. They call it the gruppetto, but it’s an office, and an office does not need bagpipes.
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift starts from there too, with its own presentation, details to come in the months ahead. I will go and look at the end of the row there as well, it is the same place for everybody.
The last in the row steps up inside the time limit. I note it.
Me, if I went to Edinburgh, I would stay for the dismantling. When the stage is empty and somebody is folding the barriers, there is always a coffee somewhere. At the front, I couldn’t tell you. At the back, I can.
It’s true, we checked: Cyclingnews.
