Stage 20: Longjumeau > Paris…

Sunday (07/25) was the final day of our “holiday” and what a trip it has been! We left Libourne early this morning via train and made our way back to Paris. So nice to see you again! We arrived at our hotel shortly after 11:00am to drop off our bags, then walked just a couple of blocks to check out the scene at the Champs-Elysees. I was insistent on having an unobstructed view of the action to come, so we had to try out a few spots to ensure that I was at the front of the barricade. Even if I was one person deep at that point, I would not have been able to see anything given how vertically challenged I am.

We finally settled on a spot shortly before noon, with the realization that we would not be able to see the sprint finish or the podium since we didn’t spring the extra cash for the primo grandstand seating. I quite mistakenly had the wrong impression that the riders would be coming through around 2:30pm based on the info sheet I read last night. Oh, how wrong I was! The caravan was actually the one to arrive at that time. Compared to the other two times that we’ve seen them, the caravan wasn’t throwing out promotional items this time. After the caravan finished, we expected the riders shortly thereafter. We had a long wait. They didn’t arrive until 4:45pm or so. That’s a long time waiting in the same spot! Thankfully, we had cloud cover and lower temps in Paris compared to the weather in the wine country yesterday.

The riders made 8 laps around the Champs-Elysees, with a breakaway forming in the initial laps that would eventually be caught of course. Go Cavendish! We were able to see the riders 16 times since they passed by us on each side of the street. However, the peloton was cruising, and it was difficult to identify individual riders since they were moving by so quickly. But, I did clearly see some of my faves at least once. As they passed us on their final lap on the way into the finish, it was a bit anti-climactic for us since we couldn’t see the exciting finish or the podium. But, we had heard that the teams all make one final (slow) lap together after the podium is completed.

Astana led the peloton out for the first lap on the Champs-Elysees

Cavendish isn't worried about the finish yet

All four jersey winners on the podium

Team Radioshack wins team classification

The problem was that it was about 6:30pm by the time the first team made their way back onto the Champs-Elysees. And, we had to be back at our hotel a few blocks away at 7:00pm to meet our tour group for the evening dinner cruise. So, it was a conflict moment. Do we stay to see all the teams past our designated meeting time or do we miss seeing the key riders/teams that we/I are most interested in? At 6:55ish, we finally decided that K would run back to the hotel to let them know that we would just meet them at the boat. We both expected that we wouldn’t be the only ones who had delayed going to the hotel in favor of watching the team’s final salute. Turns out we were though!

Nevertheless, I am so thankful that we did! It was such a special moment to see Lance riding his final lap on the Champs-Elysees with Johan Bruyneel and to see Frank Schleck riding in his street clothes with his team (on one of Andy’s bikes, no less) following a major injury that took him out of the Tour early on. This was the finish that I was looking for.

Team Radioshack

Lance and Johan

Frank Schleck

Big George

Nice bike, King of the Mountains

Let's swap!

We then high-tailed it over to the Seine to join our tour group for a dinner cruise. We made it just in time, and quickly started downing the quality champagne and wine to wind down from the adrenaline rush that we had going. And, of course, the views as the sun was going down were not to be missed. What a truly incredible trip we’ve had!

The American Group plus Mate

To top things off, we are staying at a luxury hotel for our last night in Paris. It’s been such a wonderful, multi-layered experience over the past 2 weeks. We’ve enjoyed the company of our tour group, “The American Group plus Mate,” for the past few days. It’s hard to really sum up this trip. When we were making arrangements to plan and book this trip, I justified it to K by telling him that it was a once in a lifetime experience. However, on the other side of it, it was so good that it just might have to be repeated…

Au revoir Paris (until we meet again!)

Stage 19: Bordeaux > Pauillac…

Watching a time-trial up close and personal makes for a long day. I have the swollen, elephant foot and sunburn/tan to prove it. But, it was so worth it.

We arrived at our viewing location for Saturday (07/24), Chateau Palmer, in a small village just before Margaux shortly before 10am. We had VIP treatment all day with a tent set up nearby providing catering throughout the day. The last of the caravan was going through as we arrived, then we were surprised by a few riders coming through to preview the course. Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck were among them, with Andy heavily drafting off his team car for this warm-up. I was pleased to be able to get a personal message written in Livestrong yellow chalk on the street in between the cars and riders, although I got warned by a policewoman in French to be careful because it was dangerous.

Chateau Palmer

Custom Getaways private viewing location with catering

Message for Lance (too bad the chalk didn't survive until he came through many hours later)

Then, the fun began. The first rider departed at 10:25am. The time-trial course was 52k and we were located around the 30k point of the course. So, we started seeing riders coming through in regular intervals around 11:00am. One after another they sped right by us, just feet and sometimes inches away! We frequently consulted the GC standings to know whom to expect next. We were positioned on a straightaway following a turn so we got our warning that another rider was coming when the police at the corner whistled. The riders were preceded by a motorcycle cop and followed by a team car with a spare bike in case of a mechanical problem. With the final rider departing at 4:00pm, we spent all day literally standing, cheering, and snapping pictures as each rider whizzed by. What an amazing experience to watch Lance and the others time-trial right in front of us!

Lance with cameraman in tow

Lance

Big George

Hesjedal and the Canadians

Wiggins

Cancellara

Petacchi in maillot vert

Andy!

Contador

After Contador passed our viewing area, we quickly huddled around the large-screen TVs to watch him and Schleck finish the course, as this was for all the marbles. Again, the pro-Andy sentiment is quite strong among the fans that we’ve been around, so there was a lot of disappointment with the outcome.

We then made our way back to Libourne, through the traffic jam with the throngs of other folks leaving the area as well. A few of the team cars though were led through the traffic by multiple motorcycle police as were we all trying to make our way back to the highway. I guess the TdF is a pretty big deal here, huh? :)

Stage 18: Salies-de-Bearn > Bordeaux…

We left the clouds of the high Pyrenees on Friday (07/23) morning and headed for sunnier, warmer wine country. We arrived in the small town of Salies-de-Bearn a little later than scheduled since the exits from the highway were already closed when we arrived. So, our industrious guide navigated us into town via back roads through the French countryside. The scenery was worth the diversion.

Sunflowers as we whizzed past

Narrow one-way bridge that we had to negotiate in our big tour bus

We arrived into town around 11:00am and departed the bus just as the caravan was heading out right in front of us, so we walked alongside of it as we made our way into the main part of town. People were already lining the streets, with barricades already put into place. We were unsure of where to go, but finally got a clear direction on where the start line was. Given that there were people lined up through the main road of town and the start was at the other end of town, I assumed the riders would be starting and riding through town before making their way out. Turns out I was absolutely wrong, but we still managed to get ourselves into a great spot. Unbeknownst to us, many of our tour mates figured out where the team buses would be arriving and decided to hang around there to see the riders warming up. However, we ended up on the other side of town nearer to the start where a podium was set up. We had no idea what, if anything, was going to happen.

It turns out that we were in a primo spot to watch the riders grab their nutrition and sign in on the podium. The first few riders from Cofidis came through around 12:00pm. Again, we still weren’t certain what was going on at that point. We were puzzled how all of the riders were going to make their way through before the 12:55pm start, but sure enough that’s what ended up happening. At first, the riders just trickled through one to a few at a time, but then closer to go time things started happening very quickly. Of course, all the main riders we wanted to see came through in bunches toward the end.

Getting nutrition needs for the ride

Thankfully, Team Radioshack actually took the podium together to receive an award for leading the team rankings, so we got to see them all together, and of course, the Man himself. We also saw the jersey holders, and there is definitely major support for Schleck compared to Contador. Andy, Andy, Andy!

Radioshack leads the Team classification

Lance signs in

Contador signs in

Andy signs in

Cavendish signs in

On their way to and after signing in, all of the riders apparently made a lap through town, so that’s how most folks were able to see them. Then, they amassed at the start and rather uneventfully headed out of town with the many team support cars following quickly behind them.

Race start

We then made the 3+ hour drive ourselves to Bordeaux to catch the finish, which promised to hold much excitement since it would likely be a sprint. When we arrived, the crowds at the finish had already lined up and were several people deep, which did not bode well for 5’1” me. K was able to wrangle his way into a spot at the 25 meters point from the finish line, right where all the action would likely unfold with the sprinters. I, on the other hand, was resigned to watch the race as best I could from the large screen tv. After the finish, we then made our way to the podium area, but again it was impossible for me to see anything and even next to impossible for K to see anything. This has me nervous about being able to see anything for the finish in Paris, but at least we’ll be there early enough to line up with several hours to go before the riders arrive this time.

The finish

Big George rolls into the finish

Daniel Oss was the most aggressive rider for today's stage (despite getting swallowed up by the peloton with less than 5k to go)

HTC-Columbia bikes (115 is for Tony Martin and 116 is for Maxime Montfort)

 Tonight we are in Libourne, which is northeast of Bordeaux. Deep in the heart of wine country.

Stage 17: Pau > Col du Tourmalet…

We awoke to another rainy day in Lourdes on Thursday (07/22). The sky was gray and the clouds covered the mountains. We left Lourdes around 10:30am and headed west to get to the base of the col de Soulor in Asson, which is the 2nd climb of the day. We arrived shortly after 11:00am to the small town where only a handful of fans were milling about at that point. That certainly changed over the next couple of hours!

We were near the feed zone for the riders, so K and I walked up the route a bit to check it out, but didn’t see much going on yet at that point. So, we headed back near the entrance to town where the riders would be making a sharp right-hand turn to begin their ascent. The roads were quite wet from the ongoing rain, so we anticipated that the riders would be approaching the turn cautiously and slowing down enough to provide a good viewing spot.

Beginning of the feed zone

The publicity caravan arrived around 1:00pm, and boy, was that a circus! It stretched on for almost an hour with fanciful sponsor cars, race official cars, and team cars. We were able to snatch a few goodies from the sponsors, although I learned my lesson for tomorrow is not to position myself near children who are faster and closer to the ground than I am! We braved the rain until it finally started to clear out around 2:00pm, just in time for the riders to come through about 45 minutes later.

There was an initial breakaway of several riders followed a couple of minutes behind by Carlos Sastre of Cervelo. The peleton was about 6-7 minutes behind the breakaway at that point. As expected, it seemed that they were being relatively conservative at this point in the stage, particularly around the upcoming turn. So, it didn’t seem that they were going all that fast (in contrast to later!). Apparently, we were in the feed zone as several riders had their feed bags with them when they passed by us.

The breakaway

Sastre chasing the breakaway

Here comes the peloton!

Cadel Evans of BMC with Lance in red behind him

Thor in the maillot vert

Cancellera of Saxo Bank with Schleck in the white jersey behind him

Big George Hincapie of BMC in his U.S. Champion jersey

Team cars following the riders

Once the peleton came through, we quickly made our way back to the bus to drive around to the other side of the mountain to see them coming from their descent of the col de Soulor in Argeles. We barely made it to the viewing site in time to see the breakaway coming through, thanks largely to our smooth-talking guide and driver who negotiated with police to get us dropped off right by the route.

Our viewing location

This time the riders were coming off a descent through town and were absolutely flying by us! The breakaway was still intact at this point, with Sastre closing ground and he apparently was eventually able to close the gap later on the course. The peleton had spread out into several groups over the mountain, with many of the sprinters predictably at the back. It was an amazing experience to see how quickly the riders were going as they flew past us, often too fast to snap a good picture unfortunately.

Sastre getting updated on how far ahead the breakaway is

Here comes the maillot jaune in the first group down after the breakaway

Look how spread apart the riders are at this point after the mountain

Cavendish and the other sprinters were among the last groups over the mountain

Once the riders went through, we headed into town to view the remainder of the race as they ascended the col du Tourmalet. We watched the race from a large-screen television that had been set up in an open area of town, and cheered (and booed) Schleck and Contador as they battled up to the mountain-top finish.

What a day.