Day 8, July 14, Bastille Day
Today our Tour watching began. We got up at six and were in the car by 6:40. The 50 minute drive to Sault was easy, not a car on the road, but when we arrived in Sault, the place was jumping. Everyone was getting ready to go watch the Tour. There was a long line in the boulangerie, but it moved quickly and within ten minutes were back in the car heading up the long, windy road to Chateau le Reynard where we planned to watch the Tour. This road was very crowded with cars & cyclists, all heading toward Mont Ventoux.
We had to park about 3 km from where our road intersected the Tour route, which really wasn't bad, so we stuffed our back packs with food, camera, American flags, chairs & all the essentials one needs for nine hours of Tour watching and head up toward Mont Ventoux. It was 8:10 AM.
Chateau le Reynard is the base of a small Poma lift only ski area on Mont Ventoux. It's located just where the tree line ends, on a big hairpin. There is a restaurant/cafe and a large parking. It's located 6 km from the summit and it's a very popular stop for cyclists and motorists alike on their way up and down the mountain. Today it was Disney land. There were very viewing stands set up for Tour VIP's and a huge 50' flat screen TV. The route itself was barricaded at this point to keep the huge crowds away from the riders. We found a good viewing spot right behind the barricade only 200 meters after the hairpin, and set up shop. It was 9:10 AM, and the earliest estimate for the riders' arrival was 4:50 PM.
Claiming and protecting your space at the Tour is always a challenge. There are always people who will try to squeeze between you and riders. Being against a barricade helps, no one can get in front of you, but maintaing your spot to your left or right, or behind you is indeed a challenge and it requires you to be more assertive than you want to be...but we've been to a lot of stages and we've learned. Today's interlopers were from Denmark, a group of about six 20 somethings that came with their own cooler that they transported on a dolly. They never attended a kindergarten class at Lakeway and learned about "Turtle Space".
The time went quickly, we had an enjoyable conversation from Dutch student who had gone to Geneseo State for a semester. He was hitch hiking across Europe and just happened across the Tour, although he was actually a cyclist who raced...isn't everyone in Holland? The big screen TV displayed the Bastille Day parade in Paris along the Champs Elysees. I think every tank, plane, and service man in the French military was on display for several hours. Great entertainment.
The weather started out as a blue dome day, and some welcome clouds rolled in around 2 pm. We each got up and walked back to main area where we cold buy drinks and use the porta potties. Joni was ecstatic!
Just across from our viewing spot was a German family who displayed a huge sign saluting Jens Voigt, a German rider on the Radioshack team was was competing in his 16 Tour. Had to take a photo of that one for Leslie.
As the day progressed the crowd continued to build and it really felt more like we were at Gillette Stadium than along the road to a French mountain. Around 3 pm the caravan arrived and once they were passed, the anticipation really starts to mount. Having a big screen TV really added a lot. We were able to see watch was happening in the race so we knew that there was one break away group ahead of the peleton, which included the yellow jersey, race leader Chris Froome.
Helicopters had been flying overhead for quite a while, so we weren't paying that much attention to them. Normally, they signify the approach of the racers. Suddenly I noticed that the helicopters were very low, then a long line of motorcycles, including the yellow one, which signifies the race leaders are approaching. The huge TV had gone blank about 20 minutes earlier so we were not certain what was happening, but 30 minutes ahead of schedule, the first riders arrived, and Chris Froome was leading, slightly ahead of Nairo Quintana, one of best young riders from the Movistar team.
They were flying, moving much faster than the riders usually do when they're ascending a steep mountain...but that explains why they were 30 minutes early. Alberto Contador, the former two time Tour de France winner was only 20 seconds behind, and for the next 30 minutes groups of riders came past us. Some looked exhausted, some looked intense, and some were laughing and even talking to the spectators. The final group of sprinters, including Mark Cavendish went past us at 4:50 PM. What a day!
I took over 300 pix of the racers. These are just some quickly selected ones for the blog. You'll hve to beg me to show you the rest.
The walk back to the car was a slow one, like a walk along Route 1 in Foxboro after a Pats game. We were in our car in an hour and started to head down the mountain toward Sault, but then traffic completely stopped and we didn't move for nearly two hours. Don't know what happened...but we started to worry about making our dinner reservation.
We got to the restaurant only 4 minutes late and had a wonderful dinner. We were hot and sweaty and ironically this was the fanciest place we've gone to...but it's France, and almost anything goes in Provence.
Our meal was wonderful, they always are, and we were back at the B&B by 11 pm.
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