Thought Patterns
by Emanuel
I’ve been very busy and you’ll read more about that in an upcoming post but back to the Tour for now. It’s been deception after deception with drug related headlines: first Vino is tested positive and today, after a very well executed win on the last mountain stage of the Tour, yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen is taken out of the Tour by his team’s manager.
Cycling is in need of a major clean-up as the past 10 years has seen too many scandals. For an introduction to the recent history of doping in cycling, check this post I found, which is interesting although it dates back a few months and therefore does not tackle the Landis case developments or the unfolding Tour tragedy.
I’ll skip the negativity and will rather talk about my nonetheless fun experience at the Tour.
We started out fairly early to get to Le Reposoir, the village we had chosen to park at in order to start our hike on foot up the last few kilometers of le Col de la Colombière, and that was a smart move as the crowds moved in early, specially since it was Bastille Day, France’s National holiday.
We chose a spot with some shade so we could enjoy our rosé while we waited: the riders were going to get to where we were around 16h15 and it was barely noon, but we had a good spot. This was the view we chose to enjoy the warm afternoon.
We were at the 5km-to-the-top of the climb marker, which was a few hundred meters after the 20km-to-the-finish marker, as we figured this is where the serious attacking was going to happen. And we were right as we were exactly were Gerdemann decided to go solo, and he would go alone to the end for the stage win and the honor to slip on the Maillot Jaune, although he would lose it the next day.
Of the many aspects that you only get to witness attending the Tour, one is how close you can get to the race. The guy in green next to me as I shot this photo was merely a few inches from having his feet crushed by the Mavic support car you can see in the photo.
Of course, such proximity has been known to cause some issues for the riders, such has Lance’s fall in 2003 caused by a spectator’s bag catching his handlebars, or during the stage I witnessed, here capture by my good friend’s good eye.
Lastly, but not the least, there is the experience of La Caravane du Tour, which passes roughly 90 minutes before the first riders and is composed of thirty to forty parade worthy publicity vehicles distributing goodies, to the great joy of all the kids, young and not so young, along the road.
Guy
To all the french heads reading this, here’s a good thoughts from the Foglia
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070729/CPSPORTS09/707290546/-1/CPSPORTS09
Emanuel
Toujours aussi intéressant ce Foglia – merci!
Patrick
Salut Manu,
Juste un petit message pour te faire passer un petit lien qui m’a fait penser à toi (et ta récente monture…)
http://www.virb.com/fastfridaymovie/videos/22185
Patrick
Thought Patterns » Blog Archive » Tour de Gastown
on July 17, 2008 at 10:42
[...] this time last year I was at the Tour de France at one of the Alps’ famous climbs and although the Tour de Gastown does not carry the same [...]