Le Tour de France

Vive La Tour! I was very excited about the Tour as it was a bucket list adventure that I had been looking forward to ticking off. Ever since having an interest in cycling I had watched the Tour on TV, and like Nana I had always enjoyed seeing the scenery and villages in the background, as well as watching the action. We were fortunate that the first stage we were trying to view was in Grenoble, which is about 1hr out of Lyon where we were staying with Lachie. I was really hoping to get up into the Alps to watch it from a spot where the field would be strung out over the punishing hills, but as luck would have it even with as much planning as I had managed, the roads up into the alps were closed over a day earlier because of the crowds heading up there. Although I was a bit bummed about that, I was quickly over my disappointment as I was able to check out the start and enjoy a bit of a behind the scenes look as I snooped around with my camera true paparazzi style.

I took a squizz at the team buses which are like 5star hotels/sports science institutes on wheels. I wanted to have a peek inside them, but had to leave that to the imagination. But I just happened to find myself outside the Movistar team hotel as they were preparing to head out for the day. A few minutes later as Lachie and Louise were at the car, the team all popped out in their kit and got the cleats on before they grabbed their bikes and headed off to the start. Being a bike geek I checked out the gear, and took a few casual photos of them including Alexander Valverde, who is a great Spanish rider and went on to get 3^rd in the tour behind the eventual winner of Italy – Nibali. The thing that struck me was how calm and casual they seemed before such a big day. I felt nervous for them just looking at the alps sticking out over the city. 

We headed back to the start as the ‘caravan’ was about to come through. This was Louise and Lachies highlight of the day… The Caravan is a parade of promotional cars and promo girls and guys throwing out all sorts of free promo gear/junk (bags, washing powder, lollies etc). Lachie used his great hand eye coordination to snatch plenty of free stuff from the grasp of French children, and Louise held her own as well. I wasn’t too fussed though as I wanted to find a good possie to watch the riders come past, and after 2hours of waiting by the road they came and went in a few seconds followed by the chaos of all the team buses and cars that follow in convoy. Even though it mightn’t have been the alps experience I had hoped for, it was still an awesome day to me (I still had to try and convince Louise and Lachie of this though, as the Caravan was possibly their only highlight of the day ha). I convinced them that Paris would be much better as they would be racing by the time they reach the Champs Elysses rather than just heading past us at the start of a big day.

Paris was a totally different story to Grenoble. The crowds were massive! And I was grateful to both Louise and Francois (who had only met us that morning) that they stuck it out for a few hours of waiting for the riders to come past. While we were waiting we got talking to a good bunch of people from Scotland and England who had been following the tour which helped pass the time until we began the countdown until they arrived. We could see on the big screen that it was strung out and someone was pushing the pace. I was stoked about this as it meant the race was really on and we would see the riders hammering it and not just be cruising in the peloton. Fortunately they do 8 laps around the Champs Elysses and I loved every minute of it. The thing that gets me about top level sport is the speed at which things happen, and these guys were absolutely flying on their rigs. As we headed off to pick up our gear before heading to Francois place I was able to catch a glimpse of them rounding the Arc De Triumphe and thought it was a fitting view to say goodbye to the Tour and ready myself for the next event of our journey – The Commonwealth Games.