Apparently everyone should remember where they were when Bradley Wiggins won the his gold medal.. well, here's my story.

Wednesday... or at least I think was Wednesday - was a day of cycling for me once again and with the venue being right on the other side of London, I decided to drive myself across the town instead of taking the Tube and sweating there with all the people. So an early morning wake-up once again and driving to the train station at Surbiton (two stops from Hampton Court).

The women's race was so 'short' that there was no time to think about moving from A to B - so I stuck to the start position where the riders came out of the gates, and then moved to slightly elevated position for the Finish to shoot over the heads of fellow photographers and crowd. Luckily the Finnish riders was second to start and finish - so my work on this race was very quickly sorted out. Slightly messy pictures from the start - as the Olympic organisers seem to be having some sort of weird fascination with scaffolding/fences, you just can't get away from them anywhere. But but of helpful hints from a Canadian photographer and we sorted out a nice angle to shoot from.

For the Men's race it felt silly to stand with the 100 photographers at the start/finish line and get identical images - and also it made sense to get elsewhere as it would allow me to avoid the tens of thousands of fans leaving the venue after the men's race. As I left after the women's race - I was traveling the 'wrong' way as most people were still arriving.. although what sort of point of view did they get.. that I don't know.

So train to Surbiton and then a quick walk to the banks of the Thames to have a look at a good place to photograph - and I found it in front of a typical English terraced house as I stood on the concrete fencing next to their entrance.. once again a nice view of the crowds lining the streets and cyclist whizzing past. And also some nice pictures of fans sitting on the second floor windows and waving flags (and shouting time checks to the crowds below).

BlogCycle

The cheers for Froome and Wiggins were something special - and even at a nondescript street in the suburbs of London, you really felt that the British people were embracing the Olympics full heartedly.

After 'Wiggo' had passed the spot where I was (about 10km from finish) - people rushed to the near-by pubs or their homes to watch the final kilometres of the race.. and with the sun shining and people happy, it was a good way to end the working day.. almost. Of course being on the route meant that I was stuck with my 3G dongle in sending the files to the clients - and lets just say it wasn't working the best possible way, but we got there in the end.

With work finished relatively early - I decided that this was a good day to go and visit home for the 4th day in the last 3 1/2 weeks.. so off I set for the 150 mile drive to Great Malvern. And once I opened the door at the court yard at home... it was good to be back there, the country side.. the silence.. just in general being back home was VERY nice. My wife had also been kind enough to cook a tasty lasagne for dinner - so for the first time in a week I had something home cooked to eat..

Despite being home - there was still some work to be done in the evening with sending invoices (always nice - as that means you are getting paid) and few other lose ends to tie-up. Not before long the tiredness hit me - and it was time to sleep in my own bed for the first time in a week.

A day that I possibly made longer that needed for myself with the drive home - but in the end it was WELL WORTH IT!!