Olympic Cycling in Places that Feels like Home

Image via www.london2012.com

I'm looking forward to the London Olympic Cycling Road Race, the route of which was announced yesterday.

As regular readers of my blog will know I follow the cycling races and not just the Grand Tours (although these are somewhat easiest especially the Tour de France). So this circuit is particularly exciting for me. The reason being that as a Kingston University graduate who used to cycle everywhere as a student there are large parts of the circuit that I can feel in my legs as I've cycled them. There are other parts I can visualise because I have been there.

Mark Cavendish team GB's best sprinter and in a pack finish best chance of a gold in the men's race is also quite excited about the course he said:

"Competing in a home Olympic Games is a once in a lifetime opportunity.


"To compete in the road race on the opening day of the London 2012 Games in front of home fans is going to be amazing.

"I look forward to checking out the course in detail and to experiencing the well-known cycling terrain in Surrey through to the finish on The Mall."

It is going to be exciting. Watching the circuit up and down Box Hill near Dorking may well be the prime viewing spot as well as the Mall for the finish. But I'm loving the fact that some of the places I used to cycle and indeed use to run alongside are also to be included in the route. It really will feel like a home Olympic course for this Kingston Alumni and former member of that institutions Athletics team.