Le Tour de France

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Le Tour? What, was that yesterday? Shoot! Forgot all about it...

Just Kidding. What a day! It will be very hard to capture the thrill of the day's events but I will try...We left the house early - 8am. It was just over an hour to Grenoble on the highways but once we got off the main highways and on the mountain roads the driving was slower (switch-backs) so it took over an hour to get to where we finally stopped and parked the car. By the way, we passed HUNDREDS of cyclists making their way by bike to watch the tour! We missed a critical turn going up the mountain and kept following the lineup of cars. But we did eventually find a place to park 3/4 of the way up this mountain (which turned out to be the mountain right beside Alpes d'Huez, a ski resort called Villard-Reculas) and asked someone how to get to a place to watch. She said it is FAR to walk (over 5km and with kids will take 3-4 hours, she must walk slowly). We debated getting back in the car and trying to find our original planned spot (which included several chair lift rides). Instead we stayed and followed the crowds. We walked over 5km each way across the face of a mountain (about 3/4 of the way up the mountain) on a pedestrian walkway that had been carved into the side of the mountain. Lori's strategy was to wear her Canada cap pulled down low on her head and look at her feet and pretend she was somewhere else. She wanted to walk with her back against the cliff wall and inch along sideways but she thought the family would make fun of her. The heights were unbelievable. I'm sure the photos will not capture it but Nigel will say it was breathtaking (Lori will agree but she will mean it literally). But we made it safely across and found a lovely place to watch on what we believe to be the 5th turn (this means 5th from the end) which was about 4km from the finish line. We sat under a tree on a grassy knoll which was inhabited by many creatures: tons of spiders, snails, a mouse, and other bugs. The mouse actually ran up one guys shorts right beside Nigel! Nigel counted over 50 spiders on himself that he had to flick off!

We were there from about noon forwards on the grassy knoll. During this time, we met our neighbours: Australians, a very large contingent from Luxembourg (who had spray painted FRANK and ANDY on the road along with their national flag), Irish, French, and lots of Dutch. Nigel had worn his bright orange Holland hat hoping to stand out but it turns out we saw tons of those same hats and they would all say HupHup to Nigel and he would have to say, I'm from Canada. Apparently the 7th turn is the Dutch corner where they party all day to celebrate a Dutch guy who won this stage a long time ago. While we waited, hundreds of people (spectators) rode by, all shapes and sizes, even some kids! I guess it must be a big thrill for people to ride this mountain right before the tour comes through. There were even runners and some crazies in costumes. There were 3 guys in nothing but homemade diapers. One guy riding his bike in a Gladiator costume who appeared to be some sort of tour legend as everyone was trying to get his picture and he did stop on his way back down for photo ops. A few times cars/trucks would whiz by at surprisingly fast speeds and toss out some goodies. Russell got pushed into the side of a van during one of these giveaway drive-bys (the van was stopped briefly handing out t-shirts). We realized it was going to be a fight to get some stuff so we sent in the big guns - Nigel. However, Russell got the catch of the day when a car drove by and chucked out something that rolled under a parked car. Russell grabbed it and it was a tour t-shirt from Vittell! He came running back with the biggest smile on his face! He's been wearing it ever since!

Shortly after that, the official parade came by. Now this was not like any parade we've even seen. The big difference being the pace of the parade. Back home the floats crawl by (at a pace that kids can walk) on flat ground with wide open roads closed to traffic. Here, on dangerous mountain switchbacks lined with hundreds of people and parked camper-vans, the floats whiz by unbelievably fast (25-30 km/h). So fast in fact that people are literally tethered to the floats! They come by wicked fast and sometimes toss out some freebies. It was very exciting to see! Not much longer after that, the tour was getting close and there were at least 5 helicopters hovering above us! Finally the cyclists came! Rolland in first followed by several cars. Then Sanchez. Now, sadly, we had no idea who anyone was who passed us but we tried to get photos for those of you who are tour experts! And it was surprising how fast they rode by considering we thought that they would be crawling around this switchback. It was all over very fast.

Click on the video to watch 8 seconds of the #2 and #3 (Sanchez perhaps was #2) ride past us.

Then we made our way back the way we came (unfortunately for Lori there was no other way to get back to the parked car on the other mountain except to walk back across the pedestrian mountainside trail). The crowds sheltered her from the views and we all made it back safely. Then it took several hours to get the car off the mountain along with a few hundred thousand others trying to get home. Needless to say, it was a very late night. But it was well worth it and we had an amazing day filled with memories!

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Photos

Villard-Reculas
We parked here and then trekked 5 km across the mountain slope to Huez.

High up
The photo hardly does the height justice. You can't even see the cars in the village at the valley floor. Them Alps is big!

Waiting for the Tour
We camped out at the 5th turn with a large contingent of fans from Luxembourg, a few English, two drunk Irish, and many Dutch. Everyone was universally excited.

Zoom
Here they are attacking the 5th turn.

The climb
This is a long shot of the switch-backs that the cyclists race up. As the day progressed, these narrow roads filled up with thousands of fans.

Not fast enough
This rider was about 6th back from the leader.

Pre-race parade
Ten minutes ahead of the racers, there was a high-speed parade. As the floats whizzed around the corners there tethered riders chucked T-shirts, caps, trinkets, and water bottles into the crowds.

I got her phone number!
Some of the fans were very attractive.