Cycling - Tour De France

This really is one of the greatest sporting events of the year with its combination of athletic ability, changing terrain and variable weather making it a joy to watch.

In Britain having two recent winners of the Tour has helped to raise its visibility and popularity enormously and with Team Sky and Chris Froome leading once again there is no sign of this resurgence in interest ending anytime soon. Actually the knock on effect of this, and the British Cycling Teams successes at recent Olympics, seems to have been to bring more people out onto their bikes. Certainly up here in rural Suffolk there is a lot more carbon fibre and lycra whizzing around at weekends than ever before and for the fitness of the nation that is probably a good thing.

The Tour itself is into its second week and yesterday saw the first serious mountain stage in the Pyrenees. Chris Froome won the stage yesterday by giving what the commentator described as 'a masterclass in mountain climbing', if that was meant to convey that he completely and utterly destroyed the opposition then he was right. In fact the three minute lead he now holds is already being described as unassailable, which it might well prove to be, although there is still a long way to go yet. But however good Froome's ride was yesterday, and it was truly impressive, the highlight was surely watching his teammate Richie Porte's smiling assassin impression, as he caught and passed Nairo Quintana for second place within sight of the finish. Actually it turned out to be rather a good day for Team Sky with Geraint Thomas finishing well, alongside fellow briton Adam Yates of the Orica Greenedge team, moving up to fifth place overall.

Another mountain stage is in progress as I write, with a breakaway group of riders out in front, whether they can hold on until the finish with the main contenders in pursuit will be interesting to see, unlikely, but it does happen sometimes. But obviously if you are watching or discussing the race with children then it is important to have a few classic dad facts for them, so hear we go. 

The highest ever stage finish was at the Col du Galibier, 2645m and had to be scrapped from this year's race because of landslides.

Largest margin of overall victory was 28:17 minutes in 1952 Fausto Coppi from Stan Ockers. Although in earlier years the riders rode individually and in 1903 the gap was over two hours.

Smallest margin of overall victory was 8 seconds in 1989 Greg LeMond from Laurent Fignon.

The most wins by a rider is five, (It was seven by Lance Armstrong but these have since been removed due to drug offences), a record held by four riders, Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault, Eddie Merckz and Jacques Anquetil.

Hopefully that will keep you going for a while.

Andy

Holidays-Camp Bestival

Choosing holidays of any length can be a complex exercise when you have children, particular when there are a spread of ages or the family size is greater than four people. Additionally the financial aspect has to be taken into account and let’s face it while there are some fantastic options available many of them would hardly be described as cheap, particularly during the normal school holiday period.

To be honest though the selection can be somewhat bewildering, hotel, villa, camping, specialist such as Mark Warner Holidays or Club Med, UK or abroad, there is something available for everyone, at a price. This year we are planning to fit a couple of breaks in the first of which is Camp Bestival.

We have actually been to Camp Bestival before on two occasions and from a dad point of view it has been pretty good, although to be fair the weather was in our favour on these visits, quite how pleasant an experience it would be if it poured with rain all weekend is not something that I care to dwell upon, fingers crossed for the sun again this year.  As far as accommodation goes it is camping, although you can pay more for posh camping in a Yurt, Airstream or such like if you wish, although as the vast majority of your time is spent around the festival it seems like a bit of a luxury to do so.

Obviously as this is a family friendly festival there is plenty to keep the children busy with outdoor activities, which includes plenty of nature based activities in the fabulous Dingley Dell area set in the trees, which is nice, cool and calm. There are also art, science, sports and many other activities to keep a good spread of age groups amused.

The kids therefore are going to have a great time which is the main thing, but what about dad. Well if you are feeling energetic how about a nature run, there is also a Freesports Park but I warn you now it is normally full of seriously fit teenagers. If food is your thing then there are plenty of stalls scattered around the grounds the centre piece of which is the Feast Collective, catering for most tastes including seafood, Caribbean, Asian street food, DJ BBQ and much more, all of which was very good last year. Prefer to cook for yourself, then there are also supplies on site including a Farmers Market.

Music, well it is a festival after all, there is a large line up including Ella Henderson, Kaiser Chiefs and Clean Bandit, whom my daughters assure me are awesome, and many others. Alternatively if you come from my generation Level 42 and Bob Geldof, who I have assured my daughters was good before awesome became an expression.

Highlight from last year, well there was a shower one evening which 'forced' us into the Lego area, unlimited bricks to build with, fabulous, just hope they are back this year.

Dad Land

The definition of 'dad' is a difficult one, we are after all individuals so there is no one size fits all description available. Certainly the general idea is that we are always there for our children and will love, support and teach them to the best of our ability. 

However despite all of these responsibilities there still remains a place in our heads that is probably best referred to as Dad Land. This is where a plethora of ideas rattle around, fun, childish, exciting thoughts, things to do, pipe dreams, theories, it's all in there waiting to be released. Obviously 99.9999% of the time this is exactly where all these ideas remain, but occasionally something slips out and comes to fruition.

Skydiving, road trip, trekking, well yes possibly, or it might be something much more straight forward like buying a new shed, making a fantastic kite which may, or may not, fly, taking a course in butchery, book repair, scuba diving, the list is in fact endless and probably in a large part just fantasy, but it is still all up there just waiting to escape into the real world.

Then of course there is Dad Stuff, power tools, gadgets, maps, compasses, bikes, toys, games, again a huge list, which is probably not exclusive to dads, and contains everything from our childhoods through to the present day. Scalextric, video games, board games, yes please and we are always happy to play. Compass or GPS, either or both and we know how to fold the map as well. Swiss Army Knife or Gerber Multitool, well I'm sure you get the idea, if we have it then we will attempt to use it and if we don't then we need it.

Finally for now there is sport, watching it, supporting our children and advising them on how to to it better, (part of our make up is that we do know better than our children, a theory that becomes harder to prove as they get older), and of course taking part. The last is possibly the most difficult as age does catch up however hard you try to ignore it, nevertheless this does not prevent a kick about or game of tennis with the kids, training for marathons, or squeezing into Lycra for a Sunday morning ride on road, or off.  Armchair or actual, it doesn't really matter, there is something that draws the majority of us to sport and all the paraphernalia that goes with it and there really is no point in explaining to the children how at their age you used to wear the same thick cotton football shirt for all sports if you have a collection of breathable tops for every possible situation cluttering up the wardrobe.

Andy