The thrills and spills of the Tour de France will remain long in the memory for those lucky enough to line the route on Monday.
Take a look back at all the action and pictures here
Cycling historian Roger St Pierre, 72, was there to witness it in Wethersfield and spoke to reporter Rachel Perkins after the peleton shot past.
The 72-year-old former cyclist has followed the sporting event since he was a young boy in the 50s,
Q: When did you first get involved with cycling?
A: When I was 7, I'd always wanted a bike. All the kids in my street were a couple of years older and they all had bikes and used to 'disappear' on them. At Christmas, my cousin, Alan, gave me his bike and I didn't know you had to learn to ride it. Come Witsun, with one of my friends, we went to Hangwood Forest and thought we'd discovered deepest Africa. We decided, the next day, to cycle to Southend - 27 miles each way! On the way back, I met someone who told me about racing, so next weekend, a went to watch a bike race and it started from there.
Q: Did anyone inspire you?
A: No, it was just a cyclist's love. I had a bus pass, but I always went to school by bike. We had a school reunion last year (we hadn't seen each other since 1958) and the first thing, many of them asked, was 'where's your bike?'.
Q: How did you get involved in journalism?
A: I got involved with journalism through cycling. I wrote to the local paper, the Romford Times, and submitted a column. They didn't know that I was a 15 year old boy, but they asked me to come into their office. I made the appointment, turned up and was greeted by the deputy editor, who said: "If we'd know how old you were, we wouldn't have thought about it, but you've proven how good you are. Would 30 shillings be acceptable?" Then, the sister paper, asked me for column and, within a few weeks, I had five columns and was doing work on the national newspapers. Later, I got a job on a cycling magazine. If you slashed my wrists, you'd find bicycle grease and newspaper ink pour out!
Q: What makes cycling stand out more to you than any other sport?
A: It's the most complete sport. Ball games, like football and snooker, are treated as seperate entities - cycling isn't like that. Mountain biking, BMXing, track racing are treated the same and there's a lot of diversity. It's a physical, mechanical sport that also sees tactics play a big part. It doesn't matter what build you are, the sport is incredibly infectious. You can kick most things, but you can't kick cycling - you can always perform better. The best rider in the world doesn't win everything - he beaten more often than he wins.
Q: What were your initial reactions upon discovering that the Tour was coming to Essex?
A: I was really chuffed. It's the fourth time that the Tour has been in the UK, but never has it been in these parts. Essex is such a beautiful county, but it is often viewed negatively as a 'dump'. We're lucky to live in one of the most beautiful places. For cyclists, there's so little traffic. You hear people complain about roads like the A120, but I went down one of the country lanes recently and only saw two cars, but we did see more than 30 cyclists. The landscape is rolling here - you don't want it flat but you don't want it too hilly.
Q: Best moment in Le Tour history?
A: When Wiggins became the first ever British winner of the Tour de France, after years of frustration, it felt like England had won the World Cup again! What would you say to someone interested in taking up cycling, either professionally or for leisure? Get in touch with a local cycling club because there's a wealth of knowledge there. I know that I can go anywhere in the world and a bike shop can provide me with a bed for the night. I took a team to Canada once and our arrangements had gone to pot. After meeting a man at the airport and a series of phone calls, once we arrived in Halifax, the local community had arranged a BBQ for us. If you're a professional cyclist, you've got an entire network of support- it's far better than going alone.
