Tour de France

For the last three months, I had only had one date on my mind – 23rd July. I didn’t care where else we went on our tour of Europe, I was determined to be sat on Alpe d’Huez for the Tour de France.

I insisted that we got there a couple of days before, and as we approached the Alps we realised that this was the right thing to do.

We thought that as there were 3 campsites in Bourg D’Oisan, and we were arriving 3 days before the tour we wouldn’t have a problem finding a site, but as we drove past Col du Galibier there were already hundreds of campervans lining the road.

We’d decided to base ourselves in Bourg as we weren’t sure that Fernando would make it up one of the passes, and also the tour was due to start from there on the Thursday. As we arrived we saw campers parked everywhere, including in the middle of roundabouts! Luckily Fernando is small, and we pulled into a carpark and found a perfect spot for a little van.

We’d landed on our feet, as it was the swimming pool car park and they’d set up portaloos for the vans. We were also able to go swimming and use the showers – which after a 100k ride is quite important!

Everyone else camped in the carpark was a mad cyclist, so we quickly made friends and got the lowdown on where to ride, watch the tour etc. On Tuesday we rode up the Col du Lautaret to the Galibier and then up the Col du Galibier.

This was probably the toughest climb that we did in the Alps, as it is a 20k grind to the bottom of the hairpins of the Galibier. It was blowing a gale on the Galibier, which meant that half the time you were battling a freezing headwind, and then half the time there was some relief as the wind assisted you to the next turn.

It was absolutely freezing, and unfortunately we didn’t stop for photos or to appreciate the view at the top as we were both so cold and trying not to get blown over the edge.

The following day was tour day, and I woke up very early and excited! We’d decided that we’d ride up Alpe d’Huez in the morning, and then watch the tour from somewhere on the hillside. It was a great ride up, as people already lined both sides of the road and were painting messages on the road. We couldn’t go for times up as there were too many people on the road and it was a case of picking your way though.

Once we’d made it, and found one another, we rode back down and prepared for an afternoon of waiting for the tour.

We sat waiting for about 3 hours, at first sunbathing and slowly adding more layers as the wind picked up. There was much excitement on the hillside, although a surprising lack of information about what was happening in the stage. Luckily my uncle was watching in Australia and sent us regular text updates!

The promotional caravan came through about 4pm, and provided a good hour of entertainment, trying to catch the freebies that were being thrown out and then trying to work out what to do with 10 hats and several oversized tshirts.

The helicopters indicated that the tour was approaching, so we got our positions at the barriers and cameras ready. We thought we had a good spot by a hairpin on a steep section, but the riders still flew past in about 2 seconds!

First came Sastre who had made the decisive break by then, followed a minute later by the chasing pack of Evans and the Schleck brothers, happily letting Cadel do all the work. We cheered as loudly as we could for the Aussie, but realised that it was probably too late for him to make a comeback.

By this point in the day the riders had ridden nearly 200k and were on their 3rd major climb, so there were some tired legs that came past in the following packs. It was amazing to watch them, especially after having ridden up ourselves earlier in the day.

Once the tour had passed, it was total mayhem trying to get down off the Alp. We wanted to get back in time for the showers, and ended up caught up in the caravan, with thousands of other cyclists, pedestrians, dogs and campervans. It was a slow descent, although we passed the logjam of traffic and spent the evening in Bourg soaking up the atmosphere.

The following day we watched the riders signing in for the start of the next stage. It was amazing to see them and all the bikes up close. We jumped over a couple of barriers and got right in amongst it. There was a serious amount of good kit loaded on the team cars, and we had a great time spotting riders and bikes!

We managed to fit in riding up Col de Croix de la Fer before leaving Bourg.

Over 3 days we rode the climbs that the riders had done in 1, and we were exhausted.

It gave us a great appreciation for the riders putting in 150-200k for 21 days – no wonder some of them need artificial assistance…

From the Tour, we were off to La Clusaz to meet up with friends from Australia and the UK. We were both looking forward to a week in a chalet, with a bit more room than the van and our own bathroom!