Riding with Rapha Condor Sharp

I never win competitions. I can't remember the last time I won anything like a draw that I had entered. Imagine my surprise then to get a phone call telling me I had won a place on a day riding with pro cyclists from the Rapha Condor Sharp team, courtesy of Skoda.
This morning dawned bright and a little misty, and with bike loaded into the girlfriends car we headed down to the dealership to meet the team, and the other 8 lucky contestants.
Introductions were made over coffee and cake and after changing we were presented with Skoda jerseys. All going well so far.
We had a short line up photo outside the dealership and then headed out for a pedal.

 Being accommodating, the team let my girlfriend go shotgun in the team support car, driven by Chris on the far right above. The route took us out of Newport and towards Caerphilly, with the intention of heading up the mountain. We went halfway up the back side of it, before turning off and down to go through Caerphilly and follow the Tour of Britain route up the steep aspect out of the town.
The middle section was a bugger.

After pausing to regroup at the top we wended back down and across some lovely lanes towards the Velodrome. In front of me here are Chris Jennings and Luke Mellor

At the velodrome we did a final group shot with everyone in their spangly jerseys, look at the shiny whiteness :-)

Then off for some grub and chinwag.
A top day out and great to meet some interesting people. The route took me to a lot of new roads, so I had better go back and explore more.