After leaving Iceland, we landed in France, picked up the rental car (this one affectionately named "Svelte" as it was a pretty sleek looking new Peugot complete with GPS), and headed south out of Paris en route to the town of Tours to see that days stage finish. French lesson #1: do not ever drive on the Peripherique during morning rush hour. Actually, probably just avoid it at all times. Thank goodness for the surprise GPS or we would really have been in a bad way -- 2.5 hours later we finally got ourselves out of Paris.
Tours was a great town -- we were unable to check into our hotel right away, so we drove as far as we could into downtown, parked, and walked to the tour finish route. We conveniently found ourselves at the 2 km banner mark and set up shop right as the caravan (the "parade" of sorts of all the tour sponsors, support vehicles, etc that precedes the riders) was coming up the road. Wow, what a haul we made. I had no idea how much free swag they were going to give out! Hats, food, keychains, papers, water, and more. There is music, people on swings, people that hang upside down out of the tops of vehicles, and the Vittel trucks that spray water on you (this one was the best, as it was HOT and we were ill-prepared.) =) See the end of the post for more pictures of the caravan. We met some great people -- a couple of Australians who had been following the tour and knew a few of the Orica Greenedge folks.
Unbeknownst to us as we were waiting for the riders to arrive, there was a crash at just 3 km to go, so the riders came in slower than usual (which was actually great as we got to see them a bit better!)
For the cycling fans: look for Peter Sagan!
For the cycling fans: look for Andy Schleck in this one! He is definitely one of my favorites.
The next morning, we awoke early enough to get ourselves back to downtown Tours as the stage was set to depart from Tours (bonus for us -- a finish and a start in the same place!) We wandered around in the festive atmosphere and eventually found a concrete perch on which to put ourselves for the next 2 hours to wait for the start. What a great place to watch the action! We saw the entire caravan, team cars, official vehicles and a lot of police take off ahead of the riders -- clearing the route ahead. We were a bit too far away to see the cyclists being introduced, but had a GREAT view of the starting line. Traditionally, the leaders of all the jersey competitions come up to the line first, and the rest of the peleton (main group of cyclists) follows. Chris Froome (the ultimate winner of the Tour de France) was already in the yellow jersey, and one of my favorites, Peter Sagan, was the leader in the green jersey competition (riders accumulate points in this competition by winning sprints or sprint stages -- it typically goes to the most consistent rider). And then they were off!
As we worked our way to Provence over the next couple of days, we continued to get Tour updates anywhere we could -- magazines, newspapers, random TVs in restaurants, hotels and bars. For some reason, we had the worst luck with WiFi during the first part of our trip (either it didn't exist or was so slow it was essentially useless) that we frequently had to rely on my Tour-planning-excel-spreadsheet I had typed out before we left.Getting oneself to the stages of the Tour de France does require some planning. You have to decide when and where you want to watch the stage, always taking into account how you may or may not be able to get to this location. The road closures are not always announced that far in advance, so we frequently stalked morning newspapers and took pictures of the relevant sections for our info (see the photo above.) =)
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| Cycling fans: Peter Sagan first around the corner! |
Stage 15 (from Givors to Mt. Ventoux) was our next up close and personal experience. We elected to find a town in the middle of the course to watch the riders come through. Traffic was horrible, the day was hot, and the wait was long, but it was AWESOME. We snagged a sweet spot at a roundabout and cheered and yelled as the peleton went by. We decided to watch the action in a small town called Vaison-la-Romaine, and it was a great location. The day's finish was an epic one in Mt, Ventoux (which we could see in the distance), but our epic mountain experience was planned for the Alps in a few days.
We then made our way back north to Gap, and ultimately to our campsite closer to Alpe D'Huez. Thankfully, the camping this time around was much less wet than in Iceland. =) But before Alpe D'Huez, there was stage 16. It started in the town of Vaison-la-Romaine (where we had watched stage 15) and ended in Gap (about an hour south of our campsite). Just before the finish was Col de Manse, approximately 10 km from the finish downtown. (You cycling fans might remember that this descent is known as the "Lance Armstrong" descent when he went mountain bike style to avoid a crash.) We went early, and joined the very long line of cars along one of the many side roads. By this time, we had learned a thing or two and were equipped with extra sunblock, our very cheap (and ultimately ineffectual) cooler filled with all the fixings for a delicious lunch, and a chilled bottle of rosé. And toilet paper. I don't know why, but in all of our time in the French countryside at an international sporting event with hundreds of thousands of people, I saw one -- ONE -- port-a-potty. So, if you want to go, it's beg-or-buy something at a cafe, or au naturelle my friends. Be prepared. =)
We wandered around, napped in the car, had lunch and had wine, and spent the day relaxing while waiting for the peleton to appear. At about ~90 km to go, we headed toward the Col de Manse, and the little cafe by its side. There, they had a huge TV set up outside so that folks could watch the stage, in addition to some serious tailgating. Tour-de-Francers don't mess around. They come with campervans full of food (and serious food, too), wine, satellite TV and the like. They ride hard and play hard, and are a blast to converse with. We met a lot of great people, and got some insider info regarding Alpe D'Huez (our epic mountain top finish) coming up in two days -- the road was already closed. More on that in the next post!
Watching the riders crest the Col was awesome, and we got so many great photos! The riders were SO close you could almost (if not really), reach out and touch them! We saw all of our favorites -- Cadel Evans, Jens Voigt, Phillipe Gilbert, Peter Sagan, etc., etc. See the end of the post for all selected additional photos -- there are some GREAT ones! This time, in slide-show format! (Click on the play button to start and then you can pause/advance/etc from there!)Next post will give you our Alpe D'Huez adventure -- definitely one of my best travel days ever! =)
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