Switzerland and the Tour de France

Squeal!

As if travelling to Europe wasn't enough to fulfill the "someday dream", David researched where the Tour was going to be and then planned our trip to fulfill the dream of watching a stage of the Tour de France. Once we actually made it to the Tour area, it was AMAZING!

We woke up the morning of July 8th to heavy dark clouds and pouring down rain. But the clouds couldn't dampen our enthusiam (although they did increase my anxiety about driving), so we set off with our picnic lunch, Google map directions, and plastic garbage sacks swiped from the hotel room's garbage cans.

Google maps were spot on for about 70 kilometers of the 180 kilometer trip. And then it all went to pot. At one point in time the directions told us to turn left to stay on a certain highway, but the highway directional sign pointed to the right. Since the directions had been correct up to this point, we followed what the directions said until we lost our nerve, which was all of about 5 minutes. Then we turned around and went back to the intersection and tried the other direction until we lost our nerve again. This time we had driven for about 10 minutes. We turned around again to head back to the intersection. Once we got back to the starting point, we decided to see if there was anyone around who could give us directions (we were in a small town). Yeah, well when you are in a small village in south-eastern France the chance of finding someone who speaks English is almost zero. And since I don't speak French, this was almost an effort in futility. I say almost because I did find a bakery owner and a customer who spoke enough English (this was the second bakery I went into) to know that I was trying to get to the Tour and they could give me some town names to watch for. Yipee! We are back on our way after a half hour delay.

It was smooth sailing for about 10 miles until we missed a left-hand turn we were supposed to make. How did we know we missed the turn? Well, we were sort of following the Google maps directions again since the directions we had received from the nice bakery owner seemed to line-up with the Google directions. So we turned around again and took the left-hand turn. We eventually arrived in Lucelle, one of the towns on the list given to me by the bakery lady. We were so excited, but the excitement was short-lived because in Lucelle there was another fork in the road and no signs to direct us. We thought we would be able to ask a border-crossing guard since Lucelle is on the border of France and Switzerland, but guess what! There was NO ONE at the booth. It was all closed up and the border gate up.

What to do now? Well, fortunately I had printed off the map for Stage 8 and it showed most of the roads, although anyone over 50 wouldn't have been able to read the small, fuzzy words (good thing no one in our party was over 50). So we found Lucelle on the map, oriented ourselves and headed in the direction of the Tour, praying the whole way that we were on the right road. Well I was praying. Carson was chirping in my ear about "why don't I just follow the directions." Really son, what do you think I was trying to do? The directions from Google were wrong. Dave was steady-eddy like he always is and just kept driving. Miraculously, and it really was a God-given miracle, we stumbled upon the yellow directional arrows for the Tour. We followed them right to the col de la Croix.

Because I had made sure we left early enough to give us "get lost time", we arrived at the col right on time. We were able to find a parking place and a great place to watch the race. Actually, there was a bit of a disagreement as to where we should watch the race, but it was eventually settled. The atmosphere was just what I thought it would be...CRAZY and incredible amount of fun. When the riders came by they were RIGHT THERE. I could have patted Mark Cavendish on the back as he went by if I was that kind of spectator. Oh it was fabulous.

Now for some pictures...

Maybe he should have purchased some of their polka dot sunglasses and he could have received a kiss on each cheek for the picture.

Almost at the summit of the climb. This area was packed! once the riders came by. We did not stay here.

Looking up the hill from our watching location.

He waved the flag when the riders went by and got on the Eurosport race feed.

Kessikov--the stage leader for the day. He was caught by Pinot shortly after he passed us.

Look how close they are!

Wish I could identify the riders.

I think this was my favorite part of the whole European trip...even with getting lost. Fortunately the return trip back to the hotel was completely uneventful and David actually got to enjoy driving 160 kph on the Autobahn (yes, France has their own version of the Autobahn.) I am glad I had no idea how fast he was driving!

Still reading? Well here are some tips for watching a stage of the Tour de France live and in person...

• Research the tour by visiting the official website as well as www.velowire.com. The official website will provide stage information and maps as well as links to the websites for the start and finish sites websites. I found the Porrentruy website very helpful in planning our trip. Velowire website is run by bike enthusiast. He researchs and follows the Tour quite closely. He has a section on his website where you can ask questions about specific stages. And the nice thing is, he actually answers your questions! He provided us with information on the best way to approach the col de la Croix as well as what time we should plan on being at the col.
• If you want to watch a mountain stage, watch one in Switzerland if possible. It appeared to us, and was confirmed by a couple of different spectators who watch the Tour every year, that the mountain stages in Switzerland are not as popular and the roads stay open longer. Matter of fact, even though there was a barrier up to block the road, cars were still driving up the route when we arrived at 10 a.m...five hours before the expected arrival time of the publicity caravan. In France, the roads are closed by 6 p.m. the night before, if not earlier. I know that sometimes the roads are closed up to a week in advance on some of the French mountain stages.
• If you want to get stuff from the publicity caravan, be in an area that isn't totally crammed with people. And make eye contact with the person distributing the stuff. Oh, and don't be afraid to climb down the hill to get the stuff that might have overshot the mark.
• Want a water bottle? Make sure you are close to the top of the last climb of the day and that there isn't a great distance to the finish line. Then place yourself on the right hand side of the road so you can talk to the mechanic who sits on the passenger side of the team car. Finally, dress in a biking kit and hold up your water bottle to indicate you want a replacement. We, of course, didn't do this but we watched a fellow spectator follow this whole procedure and she successfully received 4 water bottles; 2 each from 2 different team cars.
• Make friends with those sitting around you because you're going to be with them for several hours. The boy in the green shirt behind us in the last picture spoke English and could fill us in on what was happening in the race because he was listening on his iPhone. We also found out he followed Gonzaga basketball because of Rony Tourioff. Small world.

The polka dot jerseys and caps were some of the promotional items distributed by the publicity caravan. So much fun!