HRH Prince Michael  of Kent sends Team UK Youth on their way

    

The staff at McLaren gave Nigel an extremely warm and friendly welcome, with the riders able to ride down the main entrance road, to enable the photographers to take pictures and see the Peloton at their best. All were offered a fabulous array of snacks with their coffee and Nigel was very touched by the McLaren generosity.

Just as the Peloton was preparing to leave the Technology Centre, there was an extremely loud rubble of thunder and the rain came down even harder. This made the going extremely uncomfortable for all the riders. By the time the Peloton had joined the Motorhome for the lunch stop all the riders were completely soaked and not sure whether to keep on their wet weather gear, or to leave off, as between downpours the weather was quite hot. 

Lunch was held in the front car park of Piggot Primary School, just outside Twyford, where the teaching staff opened the school grounds with amazement and excitement at their unexpected visitors. In 20 minutes Roseanne, Charlotte, James and Jez had managed to move all the food stock from the large van into storage units in the Motorhome, set up tables and chairs for people to sit down, and served up a hot tomato pasta for 25. The break also gave a few aching bodies the chance to have a rub and tweak by Caitlin and Nick.

As the next downpour descended, everybody hit the road again – the pace of 32km/ph was maintained throughout each downpour, with short stops to remove and replace wet weather gear. By this time the Peloton had travelled 60 miles, and a few of the corporate guests were feeling the pace, so Maggy rode alongside, giving advise on set up and position, to ease the strain on those who were finding it gruelling.the new setups eased everyone's ride

“Although I am a fit person and mountain bike a lot, this is completely different!' said Senol, of Accenture ”Maggy gave me some advise on set up and it made such a difference to me. This experience is fantastic. To ride with my hero, in Nigel, and to get support from one of the best, in Maggy, is something I will treasure.”

With a stop due at the Williams F1 at 15.00 the Peloton and support team found themselves a little lost only a few miles from the headquarters, causing a slight delay to their arrival. However...

the welcome when the Peloton did arrive was immense. Patrick Head, head of Engineering at Williams F1 and a part of Williams’ engineering team since 1972, was there with pretty much the whole of the Williams workforce to welcome Nigel and the team in. With the threat of yet more rain, Patrick brought the Peloton into one of the garages, where they had arranged a display of all the Williams F1 cars of the 80’s and early 90’s, including Nigel’s favourite car, the 1986 F1 car.

During the visit, Patrick presented Nigel with a yellow jersey, and gave him a tour around the cars Nigel drove whilst with Williams F1. It was with great reluctance the team got back on their bikes and road off towards Cirencester. 

While, Nigel and the Peloton, had the chance to eat a selection of foods and chat to the Williams team, there were quite a few of the Williams workforce who were distracted by the line of bikes donated by our sponsor, Wilier, that the team had left along the wall, There began a long discussion, on the aerodynamic features and composition of the bikes against what they had learnt on the wing designs of the recent F1 cars. The passion and love of what they do, evident across the whole team.

Nigel meets the Williams apprentices and tells them stories about what it was like to drive the Williams F1 cars in the old days

Almost immediately after leaving the Williams F1 headquarters, the rain came back and the Peloton stopped to put back on their wet weather gear. For the next hour the going was hard work, and the only one’s still smiling seemed to be the ladies of the team – Meg Backstedt, Susan Williams and Vanessa Harding, of Accenture.