Anyone follow the tour

helmutRoole2 said:

Anyone here driven the from one stage of the Tour to the next for a couple days in a row?

Hows the traffic? Do you have to get up early to make it to the next stage?

Tell me about the traffic woes.

Has anyone followed PR in a car, driving from one vantage point to the next?

What's that like?

Yes and make sure you get a GPS with traffic update service as this lists the road closures........ surprisingly its not to bad traffic wise... the only problem we found was leaving after the riders went by....... you'd have to wait for the road to open again and you'd be with 1000 other cars all trying to go in the same direction... what was better when we stayed at nearby hotels and walked to the stage...... a good friend of mine had a opportunity to ride i the T-Mobile car at the 2004 Tour time trial at Brescon..... the only mistake he made was going to the start and not the finish as all the team cars started at the finish...... schoolboy error !

whiteboytrash said:

Yes and make sure you get a GPS with traffic update service as this lists the road closures........ surprisingly its not to bad traffic wise... the only problem we found was leaving after the riders went by....... you'd have to wait for the road to open again and you'd be with 1000 other cars all trying to go in the same direction... what was better when we stayed at nearby hotels and walked to the stage...... a good friend of mine had a opportunity to ride i the T-Mobile car at the 2004 Tour time trial at Brescon..... the only mistake he made was going to the start and not the finish as all the team cars started at the finish...... schoolboy error !

The man is right.......certain stages are much worse than others.

So, let's say you're in the crowd walking around. It's the start of the race. The riders haven't left. If you were hungry, are their vendors there with food to sell? Is it any good? Hit or miss? In france, what type of food could you expect to buy from a vendor at the start of a stage?

helmutRoole2 said:

So, let's say you're in the crowd walking around. It's the start of the race. The riders haven't left. If you were hungry, are their vendors there with food to sell? Is it any good? Hit or miss? In france, what type of food could you expect to buy from a vendor at the start of a stage?

Haven't been to a Tour stage start specifically, other than the time trial in Albi last summer - I remember several hot dog stands (more technically I think "saucisson" on a bun). At other stages we were at (in the middle of the stage or towards the end), various restaurants/food stores/cafes along the route would often set up outdoor food sales - sandwiches (baguettes with meat/cheese), pizza, burgers/sausage on a bun. The first day we were riding, first mountain stage up the Col de la Colombiere, I remember being surprised to finally get past a traffic jam of cars onto a more flat stretch of road - turned the corner and there was a food stand trailer, can't remember what he was selling other than the drink we so desperately needed at that point.

Are you planning a trip or is this all for your novel (that you mentioned in the FID)?

whiteboytrash said:

the only problem we found was leaving after the riders went by....... you'd have to wait for the road to open again and you'd be with 1000 other cars all trying to go in the same direction...

Yep, especially a mountain top finish with nowhere else to go but back down again - imagine thousands of people walking down the mountain again plus a multitude of cyclists and then add the cars that are crazy enough to try to start going down right away as well. Though my "riding in traffic" skills and confidence certainly improved drastically from the experiences...
(and some in our group will treasure their experiences trying to follow some of the pros back down on the Plateau de Beille, similar to what someone recently wrote about on Pez - following Backstedt down a mountain after the Vuelta stage finished, there was a post in this GT forum about the story).

helmutRoole2 said:

Anyone here driven the from one stage of the Tour to the next for a couple days in a row?

Hows the traffic? Do you have to get up early to make it to the next stage?

Tell me about the traffic woes.

Has anyone followed PR in a car, driving from one vantage point to the next?

What's that like?

Tour: Yes

Traffic: serious meltdown in and around the mountains

PR: yes

Easy Sunday afternoon ride (if it wasn't for the Flemish cycling fans..)

This would probably be more aimed at CH, but does anyone know, in 1999, were there plasma TVs in the media center or just regular tube varieties?

helmutRoole2 said:

This would probably be more aimed at CH, but does anyone know, in 1999, were there plasma TVs in the media center or just regular tube varieties?

I wasn't there but I think they were tube tv's. I will send one of my aso contacts a mail and ask him.

helmutRoole2 said:

This would probably be more aimed at CH, but does anyone know, in 1999, were there plasma TVs in the media center or just regular tube varieties?

Can you tell if Armstrong doped by this question ? I suggest in 1999 that would have be CRT types as plasma in 1999 would have cost a fortune for so many of them...... besides each journalist had a small CRT at their desk...... I saw those at the Giro and that was 2006 !

Helmut,
For following and travelling on the Alpes stages, you can buy this kind of cards (1cm: 1km), the small roads are indicated so we can easily avoid sometimes congestion.
For stage Embrun- 2 Alpes, you need the 2 maps
n°54: Start and finish
n°53 : Col de la Croix de Fer

After looking at this stage, I think a lot of people will put their car in the valley of Bourg-d'Oisans or in La Grave, then will take their bike, will ride to Lautaret to see the riders and come back on 2 Alpes to see the finishing.

Added: 61 for the Cuneo-Jausiers stage!

Added: I have the map 54 and 61 scanned on a protected website , if you need its to prepare your trips, send me one email address.

Thanks everyone. Good info.

helmutRoole2 said:

Thanks everyone. Good info.

Helmut do you have an accreditation for the coming Tour or are you planning to request one? If yes I would be able to take you with me. My car will be accredited, that avoids a lot of traffic jams and you can travel easier around. But I am only allowed to have people with an accreditation in my car.

Wow, that's an amazing offer. Let me run that past my wife. It's possible. We're undergoing some financial difficulties ref. selling/renting our home in Miami while trying to rent/buy in Portland, Ore., so it's not likely.

Anyway, another question to you or the Forum:

In 1999, after Metz and before Sestrières, was France going nuts over Christophe Moreau? He was second on GC, two minutes behind an untested Armstrong.

And what was the French psyche like after he lost five minutes on Sestrières?