We didn't follow the Tour of Britain this year because we were far too busy at work Googling cheats for BioShock on the Xbox 360 and looking out of windows. We made up for it by going to the race headquarters in Reading on the day before the prologue to follow riders around and spy on podium girls.


Agritubel, "Le Tubulaire Bovin". Tubes for securing cows' heads to things, apparently.


Cars. There were lots of them. They were Volkswagens, or Vauxhalls, or Vodafones. One of those V companies.


More cars. These photos are a bit boring because we weren't really feeling as michevious as we normally do when the Tour of Britain is going on.


Plus we'd been up til 3am the night before, and then had to get up quite early to get on the motorway to make sure we'd be in Reading in time for us to stand around in a car park.


Also, it was our birthday. The podium girls sang happy birthday, but it still felt like it could've been better spent. There wasn't even a cake!


But at least Tinkoff were there. We were desperate to see their crest in real life, because on photographs it always looks like the disembodied arm of a swordsman sticking out of a cloud, and a unicorn on a zebra crossing.


On closer inspection... It is exactly that. How utterly bizarre.

Tomorrow
Photos of teenage girls, plus whatever else is left on our camera from the prologue.