35 Years Watching the Tour, Then Riding Stage 1 With Stuart O'Grady

Bob and Julie Worthington rode the opening stage of the 2019 Tour de France with Stuey and Team Mummu at the Brussels Grand Départ. This is the letter they sent us afterwards, in their words.

A 35 year dream. Bob and Julie Worthington, USA, Grand Départ 2019

"The moral of this story, don’t wait for tomorrow, what you can do today."

As we sit and watch Day 1 of the 2020 Tour de France, 700,000 masks, 2 tons of hand sanitizer…and Mummu Cycling nowhere to be found, we cannot help but to reflect on how grateful we are that we went after one of the biggest 35 year “bucket list” items of our lives, attending the Tour de France in person. Last year, we lined up on the start line of the TDF with Stuart O’Grady and the rest of “Team Mummu”!

With tears, we share a living testimony. Dreams really do come true.

After our arrival to our hotel in Belgium, we were to meet up with our tour group in the lobby. On the elevator, this friendly (humble) guy joins us and says, “Hi, I’m Stu.” We had no idea we were riding down the elevator with ‘the’ Stuart O’Grady until he formally introduced himself in the lobby. Stuart immediately walked up to Phil Liggett. Yes, ‘the’ Phil Liggett! Our jaws dropped…Phil and Stuart standing there chatting with our group about their predictions for this year’s Tour. After spending an evening on the Belgium square watching Team Introductions, we headed to our catered Belgian dinner. As if meeting Stuart and Phil were not enough…Jens Voigt walks in to join our group for dinner. You mean the “Shut up Legs” Jens Voigt??! Yup, that Jens. We forgot, for a moment, we were there to eat!! Those 3 kept us entertained all evening long.

The next morning we met up with our group outside of our hotel to ride our bikes down to the start of the Tour. There were a few others on bikes too, and one of those just happened to be Christian Vande Velde. Just another casual chat with our group on this year’s Tour predictions!

The VIP treatment Mummu Cycling provides is truly in a class of its own. Day 1 of the 2019 Tour de France, our group rides off from the start line, 3 hours before the actual Tour begins. We rode the first 30 miles of the Tour de France!! Our group, with Stuart leading the way, rode the beginning of the first stage of the TDF (just needed to repeat again)! One of the greatest thrills of our lives!

*An important side note here, we have been watching the Tour de France (religiously!) for 35+ years. As a couple, we have a mutual love for cycling, have both raced ourselves, and committed to one day going in person, to the TDF! You can only imagine the emotions we felt, from beginning to end.

Stage 2 was the individual Time Trial. Our Mummu Cycling Team rode the actual Time Trial, before the Tour began that morning. Just a leisurely ride on “the course” before the big boys arrived. We then hung out with all the Teams as they were warming up, providing insight to their entire Teams operations. Pretty spectacular to watch the pros in their zone, preparing for the day’s stage.

We spent the morning before Stage 3 with all the International press. Definitely felt like VIPs. All the food, drinks, and inside scoop of the Tour de France that we could have ever imagined. And this was the morning that Stuart introduced our group to the pro-cyclist of our choice. Peter Sagan was my guy and to add to that we met Richie Porte, Andy Schleck, and so many more. Every time we turned around Stuart was chatting with another legend and introduced us, as if we were family.

From the hotel, meals, bikes, Mummu swag, transportation and Sag support, to the up close and personal interaction with every aspect of the actual Tour de France, I cannot say enough about this experience for us AND for Mummu Cycling, a first class organization! Our expectations were beyond exceeded!!

The moral of this story, don’t wait for tomorrow, what you can do today.

The 2027 Tour de France starts in Edinburgh on 2 July, with three British stages before the race crosses to France. ASO announces the route in late October. Priority Access means you see the full programme and the pricing before public release, and you get first pick of the stages. The deposit is refundable in full until seven days after the brochure lands.

Join Priority Access for the 2027 Tour de France, or see what runs at the Tour across race week.