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Travel : The Tour de France 2004

Would Lance make it No. 5?
We believed so and aimed to be there to see History in the making.

We left at sparrows on 15 July for Toulousse. Kevin and Chika slept the night at our place and Giles and Caroline picked us up in the morning en route to Gatwick airport. In Toulousse we picked up our hired cars and found a local supermarket and stocked up on groceries. A typical French thing to do every morning is to purchase your baguette or bread from the local bakery so we did the same and boy did that bread smell and taste good.

We decided to head out to Castelsarrasin which was going to be the start of stage 12 (Castelsarrasin to La Mongie) the following day. Castelsarrasin was also the stage start in 2001. We enjoyed visiting the farmer's market in the heart of the town and then sat down to a delicious lunch at a local restaurant. Most of the villages and towns we passed through had a central shed like structure which we thought was rather unique. It was so lovely to see the countryside again and passed fields and fields of gorgeous bright yellow sunflowers. The farmers had harvested their hay and some had even put their artistic abilities to use and created cycling mascots out of their hay bales.

We soon started to climb in altitude at the Col d' Aspin (1,489m) in the Pyrenees and noticed that camper vans dominated the road. It was so exciting to see people setting up camp along the side of the road and cyclists cycling along the stage. We also noticed that by tradition people were writing the names of their favourite cyclists on the road. The views as we looked back down the valley were spectacular. We passed through the quaint village of Ste Marie and before we knew it we had arrived at Le Camparo (www.lecamparo.com and Tel: 0562 919 743) in Artigues. Vivi and Alex were there to greet us and showed us to our respective rooms. The lodging at Le Camparo is very similar to an upmarket hostel but we had our own rooms with ensuite bathroom and were comfortable and extremely well looked after.

That evening we enjoyed some champagne, beers and snacks next to a babbling brook and watched various people setting up camp on every available piece of land they could find. There was so much festivity in the air as the town council had organised a beer garden and fireworks that night so everyone was filled with much merriment. Later we enjoyed a delicious meal accompanied by wine in the dining room. Vivi and Alex were excellent hosts and spoilt us rotten with a 4 course meal every night - starter, main, dessert followed by fruit and cheeses. We also sampled the digestive liquor called Annecy which you dilute with water and tastes like liquorice. The perfect day ended with a magnificent fireworks display and we were lucky enough to see a few shooting stars as well.

The following day we enjoyed a game of tennis (very rusty) after breakfast and then went to pick our "spot" along the side of the road. Only 15 minute walk up the hill. There were many people enjoying picnics and cycling the stage so again a very vibrant atmosphere. Poor Jodi's flight from Denver had been delayed so we only got to see her that evening so sadly she missed this stage of the Tour. Kevin and Robyn Luff and their two boys Kerrick & Aidan arrived just before lunch as they too had endured flight mishaps i.e. missing connecting flights and their luggage not arriving. We picked the perfect spot on a grassy bank which overlooked the road and valley below so perfect photographic positioning.

While we were waiting for the cyclists to come through I was informed that there are 21 teams and 189 cyclists and that the Tour takes place over 3 weeks and covers 3,395 kilometres in total. My word but these men must be absolute fitness machines! I was also informed what the different jerseys meant as I had presumed there was only one jersey - i.e. the winner's yellow jersey:

The Polka Dot Jersey is worn by the leader of the King of the Mountains competition, who is the rider with the best placings on classified climbs

The Green Jersey is worn by the points leader, the rider with the best series of placings on each of the stages and in the "hot spots" - intermediate sprints along the route.

The Yellow Jersey is worn by the race leader, who is the rider with the lowest accumulated time (including time bonuses) overall.

This particular stage from Castelsarrasin to La Mongie covered a distance of 199 km. Km 173 Col d'Aspin Ascent of 12.5 km at a 6,3% gradient Km 199 La Mongie Ascent of 15 km at a 5,7% gradient

Everywhere, the big talking point was, of course, Lance Armstrong's bid to make history and become the first rider to win six Tours. Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Alexandre Vinokourov, Joseba Beloki and Iban Mayo were all candidates with the proven potential to make life difficult for the Texan of the US Postal team, and there were a host of outside favourites itching to become the first rider to topple Armstrong.

We amused ourselves throughout the afternoon with Matt bundu bashing up the hill and coming back with a present for me - well done Matt! It was a goodie bag with a yellow Tour de France T-shirt, Tour de France cap and cuddly teddy bear wearing the green shirt which I named "Pyre". Matt had also purchased a goodie bag for himself so named his teddy bear "Nees". Kevin was also our sprinting model for taking practice point, follow and shoot pictures as we knew that the cyclists would fly by us even though they were cycling uphill so we had to get the perfect shot. Suddenly we were caught in a downpour and I was the only clever one with an umbrella but still got absolutely soaked. Luckily a few trees were nearby and we so we pitched the waterproof blanket over some branches and all huddled underneath this - quite amusing actually. The sun soon came out and the publicity caravan arrived at about 15:45 so we forgot about our drowned rat state and got caught up in the festivities. There were loads of float like vehicles blaring music and throwing out an assortment of "freebies" - great fun for Aidan and Kerryk and of course some of the other like minded kids amongst us. All the official team vehicles also passed by with spare wheels etc. in tow.

And then at about 16:30 with great excitement and anticipation the first cyclist came past and then another and another and we were all snapping away. We managed to get some really great shots of Lance Armstrong with Robyn and Aidan in his US Postal shirt in the background. When the Pelaton came through I took a break from my camera and just enjoyed watching them come flying past even though they were clycing uphill as they only had another 5km to go before finishing in La Mongie. Another great meal was enjoyed that evening before retiring to the bar to download the photographs and enjoy our drinks in front of the fire. It wasn't long before we asked Alex and Vivi to show us some Russian dancing as they were both born in Russia. Everyone then had a go with some hilarious results i.e. Jodi falling on her bottom.

I then tried to make up a "Tour" song to the Abba tune Super Trouper which went something like this:
Super cyclist
climbing to the highest
Pedal for that medal!

Didn't get very far composing the lyrics ..... .....felt a bit like the singing Baird from Asterix and Obelix.

On the Saturday we were going to watch the start of stage 13 at Lannemezan but unfortunately were running a bit late so decided to catch a bit of the tour en route.
The statistics for this stage were:
Lannemezan – Plateau de Beille
Distance: 217 km

• Km 49,5 Col des Ares Ascent of 9 km at a 3,8% gradient
• Km 71 Col de Portet d'Asp Ascent of 10 km at a 5,4% gradient
• Km 107,5 Col de la Core Ascent of 14,5 km at a 5,8% gradient
• Km 139 Col de Latrape Ascent of 18 km at a 3,3% gradient
• Km 153,5 Col d'Agnes Ascent of 9,5 km at a 8,4% gradient
• Km 217 Plateau de Beille Ascent of 18,5 km at a 6,4% gradient

Again we managed to find a great spot on the side of the road and enjoyed watching the publicity caravan come through. The cyclists were on flatter ground this time so managed to follow the cyclists from a distance until they were in full view. This time the entire US Postal were riding together and throwing their energy foodstuffs to the crowd. When the last person cycled past we thought that was the end of our tour spectating but Kevin received a tip that we could catch them further on in the stage. So we drove through some beautiful countryside where fishermen where fly fishing in the streams in the mountains and soon came to [fill in name once photographs back] where we enjoyed watching the cyclists coming through again. We found a restaurant and bar nearby to catch the finish of the stage on TV and enjoyed a beer or two. We took a lovely scenic route on the way back and drove through Tarbes and Campan. Campan was a really quaint village with mannequins in various form of attire i.e. skiing outfit and old man with beret located in the shop windows or on the balconies of the homesteads.

On the Sunday we decided to do a walk to Le Cirque de Gavarnie which was about an hour and 30 minutes drive away. We drove past La Mongie (1723m) which was the stage 12 finish the day before. It was also a stage town in 1970 (1. Thévenet) and in 2002 (1. Armstrong). We noticed the winter-sports resort of the Hautes-Pyrénées located on the eastern slopes of the Tourmalet. It was created in 1948 and forms with Barèges, the largest skiing range in the French Pyrenees. The World Cup Alpine skiing competition was held here in 1985. As we came up and over the Col du Tourmalet (2115m) we noticed the tortuous hairpin turns and a seemingly endless series of switchbacks leading to the summit. At the top we stopped to admire the magnificent view of the valley below. The walk to Le Cirque de Gavarnie was very scenic and the village was filled with charm. Most of the walk followed the path of the river and there were horses and donkeys for hire. The waterfalls at Le Cirque de Gavarnie were quite spectacular. We walked over the glacier to the bottom of the main waterfall with Kevin and Matt actually going almost underneath it.
For lunch we enjoyed some delicious coffee, crepes and almond cake and then headed back to pack and thank Vivi and Alex for such a hospitable stay as we were flying back to London from Toulousse that evening.

The following week on Sunday 25 July the battle for the yellow jersey was over. Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France! To win it once takes an almost superhuman effort, but six times and consecutively? That requires a certain determination and steel that is worthly only of a legend.

I can highly recommend watching a stage or two of the Tour de France!
http://www.letour.fr/2004/presentationus/parcours.html