This morning I moved the camper onto a place with electric. I saved myself about 6 euro by using the charge in the batteries. Plus these two Danish guys pitched their tent so close to mine I could reach out my window and touch their tent, this given that the next two tents were about 20m in each direction. They seemed friendly enough but I was mildly annoyed and moved my table and chair to the other side of the car so I could have some privacy eating my dinner. Have they abolished personal space in Denmark?
A lot of people have come across from the Spanish border in Spanish cars but they are from all over. In fact this is the only time in France I’ve noticed the numbers of tourists roughly equalling the French. English, Irish, Australians, Norwegians and Americans are all heavily represented though interestingly far less Germans than normal. Most people have come here specifically for the tour. I would be trying to avoid it but eventually gave up and went with the flow. My Dad would call me a heathen for saying that!
So I walked into town along yet another the river. The road was heavily congested with people pulled over on the side and cyclists on the road. The town can’t accommodate a fraction of the number of cars and motor homes so people park along the roadside for mile upon mile.
So I got to a bar in town by about 12, and had a beer and waited. Now the cyclists are due to pass through about 4pm. They close the roads between 2pm and 7pm. There are only about 200 people in the tour but everywhere there are wannabe professional cyclists in their bright coloured branded Lycra. Maybe five thousand odd!
Talking Glaswegian
While I was sat there two guys from Glasgow who heard me speaking English beckoned me over. They had driven over to see the tour and they explained to me how it works. My Glaswegian isn’t great and I struggled to understand what they were saying... and quite honestly I wasn’t terribly interested in the tour, I really wanted to know when they were going to open the roads and is there anywhere I could sit down, have a beer and watch them go passed... preferably with them stopping so I could take a picture... from my location of comfort? It seemed the answer to most of these questions was no! So more standing around in the sun and waiting was the order of the day.
ZZ Top
Now one of these guys was a freelance programmer, so we skirted the issue quite quickly. I don’t think either of us wanted to start geeking out. The other guy doesn’t do anything he was proud to tell me, but clearly is he quite skilled in the beard growing department. If he could play an instrument surely ZZ top would have a position for him.
Now they did tell me that the tour ends a few kilometres up the mountain at a place called Boscare. You can get the telecabin up there. Ax les Therme is at 720m altitude and Boscare is at 1400m. From here four more telecabins ascend to over 2000m during the ski season. The 5 kilomtere mountain road is packed with campers and motor homes. Everyone has been staking out their pitch over the last 48 hours. Now this isn’t the end of the whole tour. It’s broken into sections which do not connect up. The riders stay in hotels over night and are transported by their support team to the start of the next section, which from here is tomorrow in the village of Pamiers about 20Km down the road. I stopped there on the way to Foix but couldn’t find any of the 3 campsites in the area and eventually gave up. There are several teams that have riders from all over the place (ie. it’s not England v France etc). If you have the money and some experienced enough riders anyone can form a team, but there is a qualification process (I guess that rules me out).
Programmer cyclists from Bath
So I jumped in the telecabin and went to the top. Incidentally I was sharing the cabin with a group of guys from Bath. I recognised them, they were sitting on the table behind me back at the bar... and guess what? They are also software engineers! Moving on... it turns out they are also keen cyclists, and one of them came a cropper the day before and busted his shoulder. Judging by the number of ambulance crews on standby I think this is a common hazard.
Now if I thought there were lots of people down there, it’s nothing compared to up here! The cabin goes right over the finish line so I got some good pics of the setup. There are TV crews, ambulance crews, journalists, semi professional cyclists, people whipping up the crowd by throwing free stuff at them (I got a hat and some cold water but ignored the large number of packets of sweets that kept hitting me in the head), people driving around squirting cold mist from the backs of vehicles to keep everyone cool... but nowhere could I find the comfortable beer laden shady table with the good view and the sexy personal barmaid I so required.
I had however locate a pizza and some beer and a good view of the mountains, then consumed said items while taking in the view... now THATS what I’ve come to see!
Now it was still 2 hours before the riders were due through (due about 5pm at the top). Knowing how much the French like to wait around for stuff (I think it gives them an excuse to be lazy) I didn’t want to be stuck up here with thousands of other people all trying to get down the only telecabin the minute they finished. So I went back down and caught them early as they came through the town.
On the way down I got a good pic of Ax-les-thermes
The climax
They were going quite fast and I took some pictures... then I enjoyed a nice walk home along the river. Sorry there wasn’t more to report at the climax there.
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