Friday 22 July 2011 : Modane -> Alpe d’Huez (Tour de France, Stage 19)
Only a short ride today (109 kms) unfortunately it is nearly vertical and that isn’t even Alpe-d’Huez. They have to negotiate Col du Galibier at 2,556m first. Why on earth anybody would choose to do this as a sport is baffling.
We got up early and saw the constant stream of people heading up the mountain, so made some lunch etc and Scott headed off to run to the top and I headed off to walk up to Turn 14 or thereabouts. The weather is sunny and it is actually quite warm. The mountain is packed with cyclists, walkers and the constant stream of tour official cars (what a joke and waste of time most of them are). The walk is slow and very steep, it looks okay and then you turn a corner and it is almost vertical, hard going just walking, never mind cycling. There are a lot of cyclists that look like they won’t make it by turn 20, so not sure of their chances to make it to the top. I was overtaken by a guy dressed up as a roman gladiator (don’t know and couldn’t even begin to ask). There were also lots of tiny kids going up with their families and I am sure they got the biggest cheers of the day.
Since walking up the previous day the road painters have been out in force and there are loads of encouragement and banners everywhere. Except anything for BMC, I can honestly say that on the whole of the Tour there hasn’t been much noticeable team support. I pick at spot near Turn 10 which turned out to be between a couple from Tasmania and a family from England and waited for Scott to jog back down to me which didn’t take him as along as he anticipated. There are so many people either camped or walking around it is awesome. The caravan finally comes through and we score a few bits and pieces. By now we have most of the stuff we want, so tend to just give away everything else.
We know the riders are coming due to the huge contingent of helicopters and we here that Contidor is leading the field and he just whizzes by. Luckily Cadel isn’t that far away and looks so focused it is amazing. It is baffling how the riders even make it through the crowds, so many people in their faces, I would be furious as surely it makes it had to focus and keep a constant rhythm going.
As soon as the main group of riders go through people start slowly wandering back down, however, one of the campervans on the mountain has a tv and there is soon a huge group of people standing around watching and listening to what is happening – even the police.
As soon as it is finished we put on our skates and do a dash down the mountain so Scott can have a shower and we can join the huge queue of motorhomes heading to Grenoble. The drive is extremely slow and painful. We are heading to Saint-Martin-D’Uriage as there is a downhill stage and also a roundabout with cobbles which should make for some exciting riding. We follow the signs and find a huge camping car carpark for the event and set-up home there, only to realise it felt like we had arrived in Luxembourg with a lot of Schleck supporters. We hoisted the Aussie flag and opened a bottle of red.
Saturday 23 July 2011 : Grenoble -> Grenoble (Tour de France, Stage 20)
Well during the night it rained and rained heavy, so this isn’t going to be the worlds quickest time trial as it looks like a giant slide. We missed the riders going around the track for their warm ups, but headed out into the rain for the last caravan giveaways. I am sure there are only so many hats that we need, but Scott is now focused on getting as many as possible. We head back to the motorhome afterwards for lunch and then out again to see the early riders come through. Scott went up to the roundabout with cobbles and I positioned myself at the bottom of the road. Eventually it started to rain harder so I decamped back to the motorhome and then walked up to see what Scott was doing before he decided to come back down the mountain with me. We were listening to the radio to keep up to date with Cadel having an absolutely brilliant time trial and were in full cheer mode when he came by with some of the people near us. Of course the problem with some of these stages is that they just go by so fast and then it is all over.
We decide to leave the camping-car spot as we are getting dagger looks from the Luxembourg groups and head into Uriage-les-Bains where we spy a laundrette. We go into the tourist office which is open but nobody comes out, so Scott asks the local police who say we can stay in the car park across the road until Monday. We then head off to do our laundry for an exciting Saturday night made even better with Cadel finally in yellow and well deserved.
Sunday, 24 July 2011 : Creteil -> Paris Champs-Elysees (Tour de France, Stage 21)
We get up to find a note on the windscreen from Claire and Ben who had just popped out for a coffee, so we hung around and waited for them to come back. We decided during the night not to drive to Paris, so are going to look for somewhere to watch the race here in Uriage-les-Bains. Claire and Ben had the same idea and soon another Australian van pulled up with Martin and Pam. So we chatted and decided to watch yesterday’s highlights before heading into the town and pub to watch the race. It was a fantastic race although the locals didn’t seem that excited with us there cheering and clapping (although we did that for the French riders as well).
We had a great afternoon and all agreed that Cadel couldn’t have done it without us (not sure if he agrees).
Anyway we head out to dinner with Claire and Ben to celebrate and then decide to pop into the local casino which was a shocker, just rows and rows of pockie machines. We give up and call it a night.