 |
 |
|
| Questions? Comments? Contact us: srrunner@srrunners.org |
SRRC Race Reports
Tour de France, Paris, France—July 24, 2005
Story and Photos
by Stefan Raab
Ok,
so I didn't race, but as luck (and a little clever planning) would have it I
am in Paris on business this week and was able catch stage 21 of the tour. I
arrived at CDG about 7 am on Sunday morning and made my way to the hotel
with hopes of a quick shower and change of clothes before heading over to
the Champs Elysees. Unfortunately, my hotel Le Meridian Etoile seemed to be
race headquarters with many of the team and tour trucks already parked out
front. The lobby was full of people wearing special access passes. I checked
in, but was told I needed to wait an hour for my room to be ready so I went
and sat down in the lobby. I chatted with a woman who sold merchandise for
Davitmon-Lotto and a photographer from pezcycling.com while waiting, but had
no luck getting a room. At 10:00 am I decided I would just leave my bag with
the bellman and head over. The hotel was about a 5 minute walk from Arc de
Triumph and Champs Elysees.
It had rained heavily while I was at the hotel and continued to alternate between overcast, mist and drizzle until the very end of the race when the sun finally came out. The early rain had kept the crowds away, but spaces along the fence were starting to become sparse. I stopped to get some water, pastries, and a sandwich and then found a spot on the fence at about 11:00am. Over the next 5 hours I got to know numerous Americans, a few Brits and an nice old Belgian man. Overall, I think the Americans were the large majority. I have never seen so many Americans in Paris.
Peloton
About 45 minutes before the race the caravan rolled through. This is really just a large rolling advertisement. During most stages they throw candy and other junk including the thunder sticks you see on TV. I could tell when the riders were about to arrive when I started seeing the helicopter overhead, but I really had no idea what was going on because the call is in French only. We luckily got occasional translation from the Belgian, but all we really heard was a rumor that there was a discovery crash.
Mr. Armstrong in the Yellow Jersey
The Champs Elysees is probably the best place to watch the race because the riders end up passing by 8 times and then after the race all the teams do a victory lap. It is really amazing when they arrive. I won't get into race coverage but suffice to say the peloton is bigger than I expected and the race is faster than I would have thought.
Victory Lap
I didn't make it to see the podium, but could hear the French announcements. The crowd went crazy every time they mentioned Lance and hearing all the Americans singing the national anthem on Champs Elysees was pretty amazing. I made the mistake (as you will see in the photos) of giving up my place on the fence between the race and the victory ride, but if I stayed in the same place any longer I would have fallen asleep. After the victory ride I made my way back to the hotel.
As soon as I rounded the corner to get to the hotel I realized the circus from the morning had multiplied. All the team trucks were open, the team cars were unloading and cyclist riding up and dropping off their bikes. Not to mention all the groupies. The trucks were each like a candy story, full of more bikes and gear than you could imagine.
bikes, bikes, bikes . . .
Inside my hotel the lobby was so full of people I could barely get through to get my key. On the way I literally bumped into George Hincapie and his wife and then stood behind Novial and Beltran while waiting for my key. Security was pretty tight getting to the rooms. I had to have a key to get anywhere inside the hotel. After a shower and a change of clothes I went for dinner. On the way down I ran into many cyclist and their girlfriends all dressed up and ready to party. You can tell the Italians before you even hear them speak, the guys are very trendy and the girls very skimpy. In the lobby I saw Johan Bruyneel with some of the discovery team. Lance, from what I gather was in another hotel.
At breakfast the next morning, the crowd was gone, but the hotel was still full of cyclist including Levi Leipheimer and Hincapie. On the way out Hincapie was blocking the exit, I squeezed by and commented "Good Work" to which he very politely said "thank you." There are a few cyclists left, but most are gone.
I put some pictures on the web, but there will likely be more when I get time to go through them all (nearly 300), but these are the ones that jumped out at me.
July 2005
The SRRC would love to hear about your running, racing, or crewing experiences! If you would like to submit a race report, to be posted on the SRRC website, please email srrunner@srrunners.org.