Activities

Just another routine day at the Tour de France

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Beaune, France

Today we had one more day in the Champagne region of France. The beautiful scenery of the vineyards and the French architecture never gets old. Steve rode about 58 miles today with the “fast” group while I took the bus into town to wait for the group and the Tour de France start. The ride was a challenging one, through the hills of the champagne region. One of our group members had a really bad wipe-out, so I was glad to be in the bus.

The Tour de France is like a traveling circus. Each day a new city hosts the departure, which means they must stage the arrival of the teams, their buses, and their cars along with the publicity caravan, the press, and the dignitaries.

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Riders at the start in Epernay

Roads are closed and large event venues are assembled each day just to host the departure of the race. Then, along the race route there are sprint zones and feed zones set up by roving crews that are always a step ahead of the peloton for the entire month of July. At the finish each day, usually in a town over 100 miles away from the starting line, the same thing happens in the town that hosts the arrival of the peloton. At each phase there are moving restaurants, souvenir stands, medical tents, and the like.

We’ve been so lucky because we travel in a bus that has VIP access. For each stage we’ve visited, we have been able to drive within a block or two of the race course. As you’ve seen on previous days sometimes that means we have to drive on the actual course, across the finish line, in order to find our parking space. Spectators along the way cheer and wave to us each day as if we are something special.

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Radioshack team car

This afternoon, after the departure of the riders in Epernay, we walked down the Avenue de Champagnes. This is a beautiful, famous street that is home to some of the most prestigious champagne houses in the world. We took the tour at Champagne de Castellana and then tasted the good stuff at the end. Yum! This was the perfect thing to do before our four hour bus ride south to Beaune.

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Stainless steel vats

We will spend this evening in Beaune and have planned a nice dinner with the group. We expect there will be plenty of good Burgundy wine since this is the capital of the Burgundy region of France.

This will be our last night in France as tomorrow afternoon we will begin the long journey home via Paris, Amsterdam, and Philadelphia. What an adventure we’ve had!

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Crossing the Finish Line

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Gembloux, Belgium

Well, we had another awesome day on the Tour de France. The actual race got underway for real today with stage one: Rotterdam to Brussels. We left Antwerp on bike, wearing our Custom Getaways “kits.” For you non-cyclists, a kit is the outfit bikers wear. We have jerseys and shorts that show our group name, as well as other sponsors. You’ll see the outfits in the pictures below.

Our group of twelve riders wove through the streets of Antwerp until we eventually arrived on the actual closed part of the course. The actual Tour peloton was behind us by about two hours but the tailgate-like parties were well underway all along the course. It was an amazing feeling to ride along cobbled roads, through cities like Mechelen and Edegem, with the old churches and landmarks all around us.

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The bikers

We were scheduled to cross the actual finish line in Brussels at 2:30, and because we had some detours in Antwerp, we were running behind schedule. Those of us who are slower riders were going to have a hard time making it on time, so three of us jumped into our van and were shuttled along the closed course via car while following the fastest riders. With 1km to go, we all joined together again on bike and crossed the finish line with crowds cheering all along the way. After podium photos we changed out of our cycling garb and into street clothes.

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On the podium

Today we had access and a tour of the “technical” area of the Tour de France. This means that we went behind the scenes and saw where the crews who produce the event work and live during the three week race. We also got up close and personal with the media area and we were able to walk right up to the sets and equipment that bring the Tour to over 100 countries across the globe. Broadcasters from China to Columbia and from the USA to Serbia were set up in this area.

From there we were escorted to the rail of the course, right at the finish line. Today’s race was a sprint finish because it was flat and straight for the last kilometer.

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Final sprint

After 223.5km the race came down to a sprint. And, because the final approach had some tricky turns coming into the final stretch, there were several crashes that took some riders down. Because of that, the entire peloton received the same time, which means the overall results (called the General Classification or GC) remained the same. Fabian Cancellara, my favorite, is still in yellow and Lance Armstrong is still in 4th place.

Because we had such special access we were able to take some very close up photos of the winners while they were giving press interviews following the race. See just how close in the photos of the yellow jersey, Fabian Cancellara, below.

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Fabian in yellow!

From there we had just a short walk to our bus and a 45 minute drive to our new hotel in Gembloux, which is just south of Brussels. Tomorrow should be another fun day, with access to the Start Village and another ride. Today Steve rode about 38 miles, while I did about 28 before jumping in the van. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

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The Grand Depart – Rotterdam

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Rotterdam, Netherlands

Wow! Today was the kickoff to this year’s Tour de France and we had a beyond-full, exciting day. After breakfast at the hotel, we rode our bikes through the city of Antwerp to where our tour bus was parked. We are traveling in a group of 16 people with four guides. Today, eleven of us chose to ride a portion of the Tour de France course, which will be covered by the peloton tomorrow. We drove about half of the way to Rotterdam and then biked about 39 miles of the course. The ride was on bike paths which are parallel to the roads where the race will be run.

Everybody successfully completed the ride today and I won the prize for the most injuries. After two separate falls (damn those clip-in pedals), I had raspberries on both knees and on one elbow.

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Ouch!

At least my legs are a matched set! Besides my pride, nothing else was really damaged. And, the ride was spectacular! We rode up the western coast of Holland, across massive dams and bridges that control the water flow from the North Sea. It is often very windy and cold, but we had great weather during the entire ride.

After we met our customized tour bus, which holds our group and our bikes, we drove the rest of the route into Rotterdam for the Tour prologue. With VIP access, we were able to park the bike right up next to the action. Today’s stage, the start of the 21 day race, was a time trial. That means that each of the 197 riders rode an 8.9km course around the city. They took off one minute apart and arrived at the finish roughly one minute apart. The entire area of downtown Rotterdam was a huge party and we took it all in.

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Crowds near the finish line

Below you’ll see pictures of us exploring the area, including the media area and the festival area. We found something called the “vertical bike” in the festival area where they strap you in a climbing harness and put you on top of a bike. The faster you pedal the faster you rise up a tall pole. The goal is to reach the top as fast as you can. The record so far today, we were told, was 25 seconds. I did it in 56.5 seconds, but enjoyed the view as I was “climbing.”

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Vertical bike

The race itself was exciting with the crowd (and my) favorite, Fabian Cancellara finishing 10 seconds ahead of Tony Martin. Lance Armstrong finished a respectable fourth place and his American teammate, Levi Leipheimer, also finished in the top ten. The boys made us proud.

You can read all you want about the actual race on the Internet. Tomorrow we get to ride on the closed course, ahead of the peloton, and cross the finish line in Brussels. Then we will get our photos taken on the podium and gain access to the media area.

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