see the Tour de France live

I met some guys that were travelling with Experience Plus!. They were provided with food, lodging, and transportation while in France. Their days were spent cycling the famous climbs of the Tour de France and when they were done with that, they watch the stages of the Tour. Sounded like a sweet setup.

After spending last week following the Tour through southeast France (we watched stages 10,11,13, and 14) I’m convinced that following a bicycle race is a GREAT way to experience a new country. You have a schedule, route, you get to see places off the “beaten” path, you can camp or stay at hotels, and you get to meet lots of other people.

I’ve posted some pictures from my trip on a Flickr and will probably put more on my blog

1. Rent a camper. The Tour route follows lots of backroads and you’re more than likely going to need to camp if you want good positions. Using a tent is quaint, but it’d be a heck of a lot nicer if you just pulled off the side of the road and setup shop. It was hard not to be jealous of the Frenchmen that had their tables spread with wine, cheese and board games.
2. Barring a camper, make sure you schedule accomodations ahead of time. We scrambled everyday to find a place. Hotels and campsites fill up for over 100km around every city. The day after the race ended in Briancon we ended up in the resort town of Ceuse at midnight (over 100km away) and there were still folks from the “caravan” (Cochonou for the record)
3. See every other stage. Obviously sometimes there are GREAT stages back to back, but if you see every other stage, you get a nice respite from the stress of travel and waiting, and you’re also more likely to get good positioning.
4. Arrive EARLY. Even if you’re hours before the caravan, that’s often not good enough. On the climb of the Col du Galibier we arrived the night before around 5PM and were prevented from driving up the climb. See the previous point about seeing every other stage. I ran into some Texans inside 1km from the top (the guy was the director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition) who had arrived at their spot two nights before the day of the race.
5. Know the language as best as possible. I get the impression that the Gendarmarie (police) treated native speakers more favorably than us. If you can’t know the language be sure to have a dictionary and try your best to speak it. It helped us out (lots of folks didn’t speak English) and it made the trip all the more interesting.
6. Take a bike. If you go the camper route this is all the more easier. I found myself wanting a bike really badly. Further more, if you get shutdown by the Gendarmerie they let bikes through until JUST before the racers arrive so you can ride your bike up to a good spectating spot, and ride back to your transportation when you’re done.
7. Take lots of maps. You can also buy them in the supermarches. I also found Vialys to be very good. I like maps, they fun, but they’ll also save you lots of wasted time trying to get from A to B.
8. Take a radio, or phone with internet access. Being able to have real-time updates on the Tour status made things very exciting.
9. This tip is specific to Americans… Generally London is the cheapest European city for Americans to fly to. Fly to London and then get a transfer to airports like London Luton, Standsted, or Gatwick (I used National Express for 21GBP roundtrip) and then fly the cheap airlines like Ryan Air or Easy Jet. I hadn’t even heard of these airlines, but my friends suggested them. The flights were $50-80 for oneway flights to and from France.
   

Following the Tour was clearly a cultural phenomenon, and was an awesome experience among my all-time favorite sporting events. Viva le Tour!

I’ve bought tickets, and have a preliminary itinerary.

I’m flying into Heathrow on July 11th. Then I’m jumping over to London Luton for a flight to Grenoble France with several friends from Seattle who work in Edinburgh. We stay the night in Grenoble and begin following the Tour on stage 10 from Grenoble to Courchevel. We’ll camp in Briancon for a couple of nights, and then camp on the Mediterranean near Montpellier for a few nights. We then fly out from Nimes back to Luton and I return from Heathrow.

Lots of things to be excited about, but I’m hoping to see the finish in Courchevel (though coordination might make that hard) and the summit of the Col du Galibier (stage 11) where I’m hoping to take a rental bike from Briancon in reverse up to the top of the climb (about 40k and 1500m vertical).

We don’t have almost anything planned out beyond that (e.g. what to do when not watching the race, eating, etc.) but that’s part of what makes it exciting. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Thanks Shiree for letting me do this! I’m very much looking forward to it.

I’m going this year and following the stages 10-14 in the French Alps. We’re starting in Grenoble and following through Courchevel, Briancon, Digne-les-Bain, Miramas, Montpelier, and Agde. We’ll have a rental car the whole time, and are staying most at campgrounds.

My main question is on how early to arrive, and the accessibility of the race route prior to the race. I’ve watched a lot of cycling on TV and there are almost always spots where you can park off the side of the road and there aren’t many people. What I’m wondering though is when do they close the race route down to traffic?

Similarly… I’m planning on renting a bike in Briancon the evening before stage 11 from Courchevel to Briancon. The plan then is to ride up to the Col du Galibier on the morning of stage 11. The riders start the race around noon and arrive at the Galibier around 4PM. The ride to the top of the Col du Galibier is 40K and 1500M (vertical) and I figure that 6 hours is PLENTY of time. Would I be early enough, and would I have access to the route if I planned to summit around 11AM-12PM?

Thanks!

I’m cooking up a scheme to fly over to France for a week to see bits of the Tour this year. I figured it may be one of the last times that I could see Lance compete in the Tour. Anyhow, I’m considering three options. In all of them I fly to Paris and then travel from Paris to other parts of the race, watch/travel for a week, return to Paris and go home. Here are the options:

1. Fly from Paris to Nantes and rent a car…. Catch the opening 5 stages while driving back toward Paris and leave from Paris.
2. Take the train from Paris to St. Etienne. Rent a car in St. Etienne. Catch Issoire->Le Puy, and the TT in St. Etienne. Then take the train back to Paris and watch the last stage and leave the next day.
3. Fly from Paris to Marseilles. Rent a car, and drive to Grenoble, and catch Grenoble->Courchevel, Courchevel->Briancon, Briancon->Digne Les Bain, and Miramas->Montepelier. Fly back to Paris from Marseilles and leave.

Which would you do? Something entirely different?