Le Tour de France

So.... on the 17th of July we drove from Germany to France (through the length of Switzerland) picking up Mike along the way in Munich. We arrived in the centre of Le Bourg d'Oisans, which is the town at the foot of the infamous climb to Alpe d'huez, and just followed the first camping signs we saw. We were SO lucky as the camp site was closed but the very nice and very french Charlotte (pronounced very aggressively as Charlotah) let us take the VERY LAST available spot with power. So we negotiated the mud and made ourselves at home... 1 metre from our neighbours on all sides. hmmmmm.... cosy. We made a gourmet meal of spaghetti with tomato sauce, drank some wine and went to bed. Welcome to the exciting & squashed up life of a campervanner Mike!
The next day was a rest day for the tour riders so we too were at leisure. We decided to tackle to ride to Gap (we only got 2/3rds of the way) as on the Tuesday the riders would be finishing there. So off we went on a full day of riding, we did 120kms and 2200m of climbing (which is ALOT for us unconditioned mtb'ers!), stopping off in the aptly named village of Corps for lunch at a lovely roadside cafe. We were all amazed at how many cyclists we saw - we easily saw 500 others out there. And also, how considerate the motorists were. The drivers REALLY move into the left hand lane to overtake. And wait behind you if a car is coming from the other direction. It blew our minds!! And the roads are just sooooooooooooooooooooooo good. So well signposted and safe and not a pothole in sight. For us Kenyanised cyclists it was a real treat and we all really enjoyed the day.
Tuesday dawned and it was raining. And it basically didnt stop until late afternoon. The 3 of us had headed into town in the morning to try to get to Gap by motorised transport but to no avail. So we accepted the fact that we wouldnt be seeing the riders that day.... and went shopping instead! We bought rain jackets, roxy clothes, sunglasses, a very cute TDF yellow jersey baby grow for Nico and Mike bought a full on North face jacket as he'd been totally unprepared for the COLD and wet weather. Crazy European summer. We also went to the large supermarket and spent hours waiting in the que to pay... it seemed every dutchman and his family had landed in Bourg d'Oisans. The dutch REALLY are are passionate bunch.
So, once the weather (seemed to have) cleared up we decided to ride up Alpe d'huez. I was the clever one and wore ALL my winter kit. The boys (who copied each other's attire for every ride) were macho and took no warm stuff. It started raining half way up the ascent... and by the time we descended the temperature was rock bottom. The silly boys had to stop at a shop at the top and buy fleeces, winter gloves and beanies!
It was really unbelievable how many people were camped out along the roadside all the way up the climb to Alpe d'huez.
There was hardly a free spot. And this was all 4 days BEFORE the riders were even due to get there! It was a 12km climb (with 1200m of climbing!) but we all rode up with grins on our faces as it the atmosphere, even in the rain was totally carnival like. One corner in particular was very festive - Little Holland. They had a DJ stand set up and were blasting out tunes, they had banners and beer and there were loads of drunk dutchmen singing along to their funny songs and throwing their chairs in the air. All very funny. I think after that the 3 of us really started to feel the TDF vibe.
On Wednesday the weather was great and we 'popped' over to Briançon on our bikes, there and back meant 140kms and 2650m of climbing in total. The tour riders had it easy man! We got to Briançon in plenty of time to catch first the caravan, and then the riders (and all the zillions of official cars that are part of the procession). The caravan was amazing to us Tour Virgins. We'd never seen anything like it. Loads and loads of floats from companies like Haribo, some bread company, Cofidis, Carrefour and the main sponsor, LCL etc etc drove buy, all done up SO creatively and SO over the top. And they all would throw freebies out at the spectators as they passed. I had some pesky kids next to me so didnt score that much of the rubbish but I got better by the end of our trip.
The riders came past in a flash even though we were at the top of a 1km unbelievably steep hill. There was a breakaway first of about 8 riders, none of which I really knew, and then the main pelaton was just this huge moving mass of panting riders. We were able to spot Thor Hushovd and Cadel Evans and thats about it! So our 3 hour ride there, followed by a 3 hour wait and 3 hour ride back was only rewarded with the briefest of sightings... we wanted MORE. And boy did we get more. That was just a warm up glimpse of our heroes!
That evening we went for a cool meal in the buzzing town of Burg dwaZonne to give ourselves a break from camplife.
I'll use Mike's words for our next day, Thursday the 21st - Stage 18:
'Apologies before I begin…I’ve had TWO G&T’s [and then we moved on to the wine] and I can’t feel any of my limbs, so I hate to think what this email will read like on a sober morning…
What a day! I’m sure some of you caught the excitement on TV. That 88 riders made it outside cut-off (that’s near on half the peloton!!) says it all. A monster stage if there ever was one: Col D’Angel, Col de L’Izoard and to cap it off, Col de Galibier…all hors cateogrie. No wonder.
We rode up to Col de Lautaret [40km and 1100m of climbing one way], the turn off to the last 8km up Galibier, as promised. The initial plan was to do Galibier itself, but a curt “pas de bicyclette” from a not-yet-fed-up Gendarme put paid to that plan.
The crowds. If ever there was a time not to be agoraphobic, this was it. Hundreds? Thousands? Seriously, it was completely nuts. We placed ourselves on a slope 400m up the climb and waited for the carnival to begin. If yesterday was spectacular, today’s was out of this world. The Caravan was even more festive and, the veterans that we now are, were able to place ourselves strategically enough to come away with a few goodies.
The riders shooting past were nothing but amazing…how they can haul up that climb as fast as they were is something unbelievable…and over all too soon.
The way back down to home base was rather hair raising…hundreds of bikes and more than a few cars heading down the same direction. There was only one way to get down and that was fast, to avoid all the idiots who don’t know how to ride in a straight line. '
A video of Andy and the astana rider (who Andy soon dropped after this):


So, Friday, our last day, and the tours' deciding stage arrived and the weather was beautiful at last. We'd heard music coming from the mountain and seen the fireworks going off the night before, so the excitement and build up was there. I was rooting for both Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans as they both seem like such cool guys and both deserve the title for all their hard work and amazing talent. In previous tours I either haven't been that interested or someone I didn't like was winning... now 2 amazing guys were in contention and we were there to support them. AWESOMENESS!


So that evening we decided to go for pizza (I had one without cheese) but obviously so did the rest of the world. But we found a cool spot with a weird but very friendly waitress and waited hours for our meal. While we were seated there, so was the traffic. People trying to drive out of the town had in the end turned their cars off as they didn't move an inch the entire evening! We had packed everything up and got the team bus ready for our early departure the next day, but got it stuck in the surrounding marsh when turning it around... nothing the 8 strong Norwegian guys from next door couldn't cope with! That bus must weigh at least 3 tons?! I was cheering on from the sidelines :)
And so we left jolly france at 5am the next morning, drove Mike to Zurich and then we drove home to Benedikt's parents house to see our darling son who got even cuter in the week we were away. And we got home just in time for his first birthday. More on that next.......