le Tour de France

Let me just start off by saying.....France hosts one heck of a bike race!!!!

From the second I arrived on the famous Champs Elysees Sunday morning I was like a small child on Christmas morning. I wanted to buy everything (high prices made sure that I did not...) and I was so excited for everything to get started. Of course I had showed up at about 10:30 and the real festivities would not start till around 2:30. So I found what I felt was the best spot and began waiting talking with some Scots, a student from Berkely, and a fanily from Virginia. Around 2:30 all of the team and tour sponsors came through in a big, wild parade (see pics below), which helped pass the time.



Then after another hour of waiting, the moment finally arrived and the riders of the Tour de France streaked down the Champs Elysees for the first of eight laps! There was a breakaway at the start (see next pic) and many other attempts to breakaway but none managed to stay ahead of the peleton, all were caught.


If you look at the above picture you can see that the gutter on the side of the road is much smoother than the bumpy Champs Elysees, because of this when some riders try to break away from the peleton they would ride in the gutter! So if you did not pull back your head and camera you might have a rider crash into you! You can see riders using the gutter in the below video, plus it gives a good sense of what it was like to be right in the action!!! (I must say thought that the video does not do justice to how rediculously fast they go!).




Sometimes the peleton would be in one big clump while other times it would be long and spread out. Everyone was always trying to spot the Maillot Jaune (proof that where's Waldo books have real life value!!!). Try your luck on these next two photos....


I could not see any of the ending ceremonies from where I was, but I am told (by the scots, who have been to countless stages over the years) it is not nearly as exciting because you only see the riders once, when they finish, instead of the sixteen times I saw them (eight times on both sides).

After all the ceremonies finish each team takes one final lap around the Champs de Lyse as a team to celebrate the ending of the tour. The picture below is of Carlos Sastra (the winner, in yellow) with a teamate and the Spanish flag.


As you can probably tell I really enjoyed this, in fact it is probably the highlight of my trip so far! I could go on and on and post tons more pictures (I have around 100), but I imagine this should do the job without boring my readers!

P.S. - The rest of Paris is great as well!