On a beautiful July
day in the French Alps, a familiar scene began to unfold in the
usually quite town of Saint-Etienne de Cuines. Thousands of people
from all over the world began to line up along the narrow mountain
roads with chairs, coolers, and flags in anticipation of seeing the
riders of the 99th Tour de France. ''This is my third time
coming and I am really excited,'' said a fan from Norway next to
several flags Norwegian flags she had planted in the ground earlier
in the day.
I arrived
approximately four hours in advance to get a good spot to see the
riders arrive, but the streets were already full of fans. I was not
too surprised as I was in a very popular location; at the beginning
of an ''hors categorie'' mountain climb. The ''Col de la Croix de
fer'', or the Iron Cross has inclinations of over nine percent at
certain points, one of the steepest climbs in this years tour with a
summit of over 6,500 feet. Being on the mountain gives fans
the best opportunity to catch a glimpse of their favorite rider or
the ''Maillot Jaune'' as the cyclists are not going very fast. The
waiting portion of the day seemed to fly by due to the great
atmosphere. Many fans were discussing the tour with each other, while
others were wearing ridiculous outfits, and others were blaring out
the tour live on their portable radios. This is a great way to
interact with people from all parts of the globe and maybe even meet
someone from your country.
A little over an
hour before the cyclists would arrive the famed publicity caravan
rolled into the village playing music and throwing out thousands of
goodies to cheering fans next to the road. Dozens of intricately
decorated cars paraded by giving away everything from candy, jerseys,
hats, and even sausages. The publicity caravan began in 1930 as a way
to help promote and fund the tour, it lasts about 45 minutes and
gives away millions of items on a daily basis. This is a great way to
bring fans together and provides for a great show to not only kids
but adults as well.
Now that everybody’s
hands were full with all types of items, the anticipation only grew
as everybody could sense that the riders were getting closer and
closer. Even when a tour vehicle passed by, fans jumped out of their
seats looking around to see if a bike was in sight. Shortly
thereafter several television and tour helicopters were in sight
which meant that at any moment the riders would be racing by. In
addition to this, cars belonging to the tour, teams, and the police
began to pass by more and more frequently. It was only a few minutes
later that we were witnessing the greatest bikers in the world
participating in the most prestigious bike race. Fans were yelling,
using their air horns, as well as waving their flags hoping to catch
a glimpse of their favorite rider in action. In a mountain stage the
cyclists are spread out quite a bit so it takes about 20 minutes to
see all of the participants. As soon as everyone had passed it was
time to go home or for some move on to see the action again the next
day.
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