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ALLEZ, GO GO GO!: ON THE ROAD
Chris Henry
July 7, 2009
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The Village Départ in Monaco: a place to see and be seen
After a few days setting up and kicking off the Tour de France in Monaco, the race hit the road and headed west on Sunday. We've had two road stages now and today brings a team time trial around the city of Montpellier. With the whole traveling circus set in motion (ok, a little less motion today), the characters of the Tour are settling into the routine.
It's a bit like groundhog day, actually. Each morning we pry ourselves out of our beds and hotels to find the race start, get parked, and pop into the Village Départ for a quick tour. This is where you start to cross paths with your friends and acquaintances and
Person 1: Salut!
Person 2: Salut (shake hands)
Person 1: Ça va?
Person 2: Oui ça va bien, et toi? En forme?
Person 1: "Boff.... (Shrug shoulders) Ça va aller.
Person 2: Allez, ciao.
Person 1: Ciao, à plus tard
This roughly translates into: Hey! Hey. How's it going? Fine, you? Hanging in there.. Ok, see you later. Later.
This conversation is repeated between the same people every day, and the fact is that it's a pleasure. There is generally a great camaraderie on the Tour, because everyone is experiencing the same struggles, the same long hours, and also the same excitement at being in the center of the world's biggest bicycle race. This applies just as much to the former riders and others who have been doing this for 30 years. There is great satisfaction to be had in these small moments and as the French say, "il faut profiter". You've got to take advantage.
I like to catch up with my friends the motards. That's the French word for the motorcycle drivers who carry the race organizers, the photographers, the commissaires, and so on. They're a great bunch of guys and they love their work. I'll be on the press moto for the penultimate stage to Mont Ventoux and I can't wait.
Marc Meilleur, who drives the moto for the French l'Equipe newspaper, likes to come up to me and show me how much more tan his arm is than mine. Merci, Marc., I'm aware of just how white I am, but I am transitioning nicely to off-white thanks to the blazing sun in the south. I try to remind him that these days I spend much of my life in an office. His office is a two-wheeled BMW.
Road Bike Action drove the race course on Sunday from Monaco to Brignoles. This gave us a chance to check out the ambiance of the race, the parcours, and of course the joys of passing through the publicity caravan in the rolling slalom maneuver that is so much fun on narrow, winding roads. It was a long day but well worth it to see the enormous throngs waiting hours in advance of the race just to catch a 15 second glimpse of the riders. And, judging by the thousands of waves we received from people along the road, RBA clearly has an enormous following in France.
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Thousands of Road Bike Action readers line the roads from Monaco to Brignoles
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The Tour is so much more than a bike race here, and don't ever let anyone tell you that its popularity is waning. Spend one day on the course and you'll know just how important these three weeks are.
Today for the team time trial we have a bit of a slower pace to work at before launching once more out on the open roads. We'll be dipping into Spain, and of course the mountains are not far away. That's when things really get interesting.
With that, it's time to hit the road.
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