Freebie Newbie
Trip Start
Jun 29, 2008
1
18
20
Trip End
Aug 01, 2008
Foix, Midi-Pyrénées, France
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Today was Mum/Des' first day at the Tour. We were in the Mountains near the finish. We started the day by driving through the finish town of Foix. In hindsight we probably made a tactical error by not staying at the finish but we were concerned about it being too crowded. Still it was very cool to see the setting up of the stage finish. The course decorators were out, they carry a big hammer drill and just drill into the pavement as they go. We did wonder what the restoration requirement is after seeing this. The final kilometre is blocked off but we got to look up the street at least.
After Foix we renavigated to Lannezman with the intention of driving the course backwards and just stopping when we found somewhere good. After the lesson learned on Monday we had planned this part well. That is until about 25kms along the course the Gendarmes turned us back. So at 10.30am we found ourselves on a mountain side in a carpark, with 4 hours to wait until the caravane came through, 6.5 hours till the riders, no shade, and no hats. Now the lack of hats is a very odd thing for us as we always have hats and have just spent the last week and a bit getting hats thrown at us. My lucky French Umbrella came in handy again. Not only no rain, but also now we had some shade. So it was chairs out, Sudoku open and Mum/Des scanning the ranges for a glimpse of a loo. We still hadn't told her how long the wait was yet.
After breaking the good news and moving to a superior position in the shade we settled in for a picnic lunch. This was nice, we had packed well and everything had survived the journey, even the rice cakes! Joel and I kept ourselves amused by regularly telling Mum/Des that the car going by was the caravane starting, she would jump up, where where? Thankfully before long it really was coming and we moved down to the road side; Mum/Des had the medium Aussie flag to wave. I think she may have missed her calling as a gogo dancer. She waved that flag to within an inch of her life, she danced with the weird dancing girls on the backs of the floats, she caught the eye of 1 or 2 of the older Gendarmes. Let me put it this way she went right off!
The downside to this was that she also caught the attention of the cranky/jealous French lady to her left, who developed a right arm blocking swing to stop Mum entering her freebie space. This didn't stop her or the others from entering our space to retrieve prizes naturally. Mum/Des became quite possessive and wouldn't share her loot with anyone. She also developed a pass back move which allowed her to grab/catch a prize pass it behind to us and not stop waving the flag. Impressive. She went toe to toe with the locals a few times on the prize front and usually came out the winner. Although it was at this stage that Joel started talking about maybe going to tomorrow's stage by himself.
After the frenzy we retired to the shade to await the riders. It was quite a surreal feeling to be on a mountain road waiting for the Tour riders. We are not becoming used to it at all. I think taking some breaks helps keep it fresh, and of course each day is a new scene and new locals. We heard the announcement that the riders were 5 minutes away.
Now normally this warning is about 20mins early so we didn't rush to action stations.
Well Mum/Des did but we didn't. Thankfully she had though because it wasn't long before the chopper was going overhead and the sirens were wailing. The solo breakaway rider was an odd sight amongst all the protection usually shared by 5 or so riders. As those of you brave and tired souls who stay up at night to catch a glimpse of us will know, today's stage was a split affair with 3 bunches chasing a solo breakaway. Because the number of riders was reduced we were able to see Cadel quite easily. The bright yellow jersey may have helped a bit too. Our position on the hill meant we were on a descent so we got full advantage of Cadel going low on his bars and accelerating past other riders. There were some who really took advantage of the free speed and others who sat up for a bit of a rest after the massive climb they had just done.
Joel was able to impress the other spectators as they started to leave and he said that the Fin de la course car was still coming. He got a bit of a cheer when the final bunch came flying through. After that we returned to the car where Joel's good will had worn off and an old French guy called us "Idiotes" because we had parked in the shade he wanted. Comment dit you snooze you loose?
Now we had a race of our own to get back to Payrac before 8pm so we could watch the Tour Highlights on TV. As we flew down the highway at phenomenal speeds, cruising at 150km/h we were all of a sudden in a Tour caravane of our own, it was the Tour vehicles leaving Foix, the rider's buses, team cars, support vehicles for Silence Lotto! It was so cool! Mum/Des Pulled out the flag for a quick wave after Joel excitedly told us Cadel would probably be on the bus. They totally filled up the Peage station it was very exciting.
We made it back in time to catch the highlights but we missed what happened with Cadel hitting a journalist. So we will try and translate a newspaper article tomorrow.
