Tour de France (July 7)

Living within 10 miles of the French border offers some unique day trip experiences!

John discovered that the Tour de France was coming to a point about 1 1/2 hours away from us this summer, so we decided to check it out. So glad we did - though ironically, it's an all day event to watch about 10 minutes of racers passing you.  10 minutes is probably a generous estimate....

We didn't know how it would all work since neither of us could read the French website.  John had discovered some explanations from other people's experiences, but we set off for the adventure of it.  We drove to a little town near the first big hill climb of the Tour. We knew we wouldn't be able to get super close, but the town was several km from the race route and the part where we wanted to watch.

We started to walk and then noticed these big free shuttle buses driving back and forth.  Thinking it more enjoyable, we headed back to the car, drove further down the road to these fields all marked off for parking and climbed onto one of about 20 or 30 shuttle buses that took us the the base of the last six km of the stage - a steep incline. Good choice.  It was hot, and quite a lot longer walk than we realized.

After walking one or two km up the hill, we picked a shady spot on the side of the road to wait.  I think it was about two hours of sitting and waiting before the publicity 'parade' came up the road, tossing out all kinds of free stuff (anybody need a key chain?).  I was all set to read while we waited, but it was just too much fun people watching! Everybody was just having such a good time.  People had radios on all over listening to the race (again, in French so of no benefit to us), and there's this tradition of riding the stage on bike before the Tour riders come through.  So many bicycle clubs and families came riding through.  Dads get serious superstar points, riding up that steep hill, pushing their kiddos up, pulling trolleys behind....

Note the SPECTATOR in the full body red unitard - face and hands included.

I think it was less than an hour after the publicity parade that the riders came through.  My favorite moment was just before they came.  We were sitting partway up a straight stretch, so we could look down and see these cars with roof racks coming.  Then the media helicopters started flying overhead, and this sort of electric anticipation took over the whole crowd as we all peered down the road for the first riders.

And then it just went so fast!  I didn't really believe John that we'd seen all the riders once they were past us.  They were so close...they looked so "normal" (what do I expect, anyway?), and I don't know enough about cycling to recognize any of them.  :)

All the bikes, all the cars with their roof racks full of bikes, all the media and police people - when they were all gone, we headed back to the shuttle bus.  There was this huge line that seemed like we might be waiting for hours, but it clipped along and we were on our way in no time.

We stopped for dinner in a town on the way home where the teams were spending the night.  As we walked down one pathway, it took us past the buses and crews.  They were washing all the bikes.  Their vans were full of hanging tires and bike parts, and each bike had the name of the rider painted on the crossbar.  The guys let John pick one up - crazy lightweight.  I think my bike weighs about triple....

Good adventure.