Is what you here a million times a day at the Tour. The last couple of days have been pretty damn cool. I left Contiki wanting more, but have now moved on to the final leg of my holiday and its been great (so far).
I managed to pick up my absolute of a beast rental car from Toulouse airport with no problems at all. Drove out of the airport with some VERY vague directions on how to get to my hotel. Ran into the right handside gutter about 10 times in 10 meters. After driving for a few days I think ive gotten used to it now. I still sometimes almost open the door when reaching for the gear stick though. And round abouts I just break all sorts of rules because I have no idea whats going on there.
Ive managed to make my way out of Toulouse a couple of times, once to a town North-East called Albi, where the Time Trial was. And a second time this morning to a mountain called Plateau de Beille, which is pretty much directly south of Toulouse not so far away from the town of Foix. You know you are in the Pyrenees when you look left and right and see a 2000m cliff either side.
Ive done all this with a Michelin map of the entire France which only shows the main highways, so I think im doin pretty well. This morning I didn’t exactly know where to go, so I headed for Foix and saw hundreds of Tour cars so I just followed them until I saw everyone parking and walking somewhere. Luckily it worked out.
Getting places is pretty quick as well, being that the highways have 130km/h limits that aren’t enforced. So im smashing my little 1 litre Citroen at 130km/h in the SLOW lane with cars overtaking that must be going 160km/h. Crazy.
But being here and actually watching the riders live in front of me is amazing. The pace at which they ride is incredible. After riding 180km already, they ride up one of the toughest climbs in the world faster than I ever could fresh. Its not just the riders though, the whole atmosphere behind it is cool. Before the riders come there is the massive ‘Caravan’ of sponsors consisting of hundreds of cars and trucks that give away free stuff. People love this crap as well. I was lucky today, as one of the riders went past me he threw away his drink bottle so I grabbed it as a souvenir. And what team was he from? Discovery Channel. Hell yes.
Tomorrow is another Tour stage, then a day off, then another stage. I might drive to Bordeux on my day off or just rest I haven’t decided. Last night I slept from 8pm to 8am without waking up once so I think that’s a good indication of how much Contiki took out of me.
Those are some frickin great shots mate, how close were you! It would be soo awesome to see the yellow jersey go by, and Vino. I cant believe you got one of their bottles, do you know which disco rider it was?
Comment by Bec — Monday, 23 July, 2007 @ 08:44
Its crazy seeing the yellow jersey go past. The amount of vehicles surrounding his group is nuts. There must have been 20 motos with photographers infront, plus tv crews, plus about 10 officials cars. I dont know what disco rider it was either, but they went damn good for the day. Pushing the pace pretty well from what ive read of the day.
Comment by prento — Monday, 23 July, 2007 @ 16:16
nice package shots
Comment by hoink — Monday, 23 July, 2007 @ 16:36
Yeah I took them for you gay man.
Comment by prento — Monday, 23 July, 2007 @ 16:46