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This time next year, London will be gearing up to welcome the Tour de France. The third stage of Le Tour will take in Epping (watch out Essex boys in your souped-up Mercs) and a circuit of the Olympic Park before finishing at the Mall. If you can’t tell the difference between a peloton* and a puncture-repair kit, head to the Nocturne, at Smithfields on Saturday evening, to master some of the finer points of road racing.
Inspired by the nighttime races that take over towns on the continent, Nocturne is all about a festival atmosphere: one eye on the bikes, the other on the beer tent. Nearby roads are closed off to make a 1km circuit. Local restaurants and bars spill out on to the pavement with barbecues and craft beer stands.
And this being London, we get wacky races as well as Lycra-clad seriousness. So, before the floodlit elite competitions comes the fun stuff. Don’t miss the Time Out Folding Bike Race (first heat at 4.30pm, final 8.30pm) or the Penny-Farthing Race (7.10pm) – which is less of a tweedy, twiddly-moustached pootle than you’d imagine… honest, it gets properly competitive.
The pro race everyone’s talking about this year is the Elite Women’s Criterium (a crit is basically a death-wish fast sprint-style race, lapping the circuit over and over). All eyes will be on Olympic golden girls Laura Trott, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell competing in the Wiggle-Honda Pro Cycling team. The crowd gets four-to-five deep on the finish line. So a good spot to watch from is the back straight on Charterhouse Street. There you’ve got a choice of posh nosh from Smith’s of Smithfield’s or Gaucho, a bird’s eye view into the pro-team pits and the chance to feel the gust of wind on your face on the barrier line as the peloton thunders past at 40mph. For full details see www.londonnocturne.com.
*The main pack of riders in a race cycling nose to tail not because they’re BFs, but to cut wind drag by up to 40 percent.