UPDATE: Here is the video you can watch with all of the tour riders:
Today was the end of our pilgrimage. We began in Las Cruces, and journeyed here to see the Tour. Pilgrimage complete.
The final step of the pilgrimage was not easy. It featured a steep as hell hike, and obviously a shitton of planning had to go into all this. However, all the effort culminated in us getting to cheer on our favorite riders in person, which is a true experience. We even got on TV. Damn good pilgrimage.
And now we begin the story of the day.
When we planned to watch the tour de France back in February, we didn’t want to just see any old stage, watching the bikers fly by. We wanted to see a brutal mountain stage that could affect the overall race standings. However, The more brutal the mountain stage, the harder it is to go and see the stage. Today was no exception.
We started the day by taking an early train from Marignier to Cluses. It was just one stop, but it was extremely important we didn’t walk any more than we had to. Because we had to walk A LOT.
Cluses is a bigger town than Marignier, but we are still out in the sticks. Here are a couple pictures of the town:
From here, we had to somehow get up the nearby mountain to the town of Romme. This is where the bikers would finish one of their tough climbs on the stage today.
There were two ways to get to Romme. We could either walk up the steep road of death, where we likely would become part of the asphalt, or go this back way via hiking trail. Google suggested the hiking trail would be best. I guess Google was correct, but goddamn was this a tough hike. I had to drink a lot of beers.
Also, towards the top, signs pointed us one way, and Google pointed us another. We listened to the signs which was a big mistakey. Added a good half hour to the hike. However, we did get some pretty sweet views of the mountains
And here is the cute little town of Romme:
We showed up in town 5 hours before the tour was supposed to come through. The place was bustling, and there were plenty of people getting setup to watch the race. This area ended up being really crowded, but here we are at the top of the climb:
We didn’t want to get crowded out, so we walked farther down the hill a bit. There were amateur bike sphincters going up and down the hill. Looked a little too busy to be doing that, but guess that’s the way it is!
We picked a spot and camped out for a bit. The race had just started when we had found our spot, so there was much waiting to do. However, about 2 hours ahead of the riders is a giant convoy. This convoy just throws all kinds of free shit at you, and we actually got some decent stuff! I filmed the convoy on my GoPro, so stay tuned for a sweet tour de France video.
As the racers got closer and closer, more and more vehicles flew up the mountain. Helicopters also began to come on in the film the race.
We finally saw the two front racers, so it was time to put on my battle armor. I guess the first two weren’t actually riding together. We were witnessing one Frenchman (who ended the day as king of the mountains) over taking the guy who had been leading most of the climb! Exciting stuff! Even though we were on a tough climb, these guys were still cruising by. We cheered the riders on, and I got to yell at the dude with the yellow Jersey, encouraging him to keep it at the end of the day, which he did. We also got to see all the superstars in the main pack.
Here’s me with some riders who were farther behind:
And here is me with Peter Sagan! He went hard at the beginning of the race, and he was paying here.
He didn’t look at me, for some reason. I have all kinds of sweet GoPro footage I can’t wait to go through and show you guys!
One interesting thing about seeing these riders in person is that they are all pretty small dudes. You see them on TV and they appear larger than life. In reality, they are just small dudes on a bike (except for some). As such, Taylor phinney sticks out like a sore thumb. It was fun to cheer him on!
The riders passed through by 1740. We had a train to catch at 1929. It was the last train of the evening. Station was 10k away. Thus began our own tour de France stage!
We power walked down the climb the riders had just come up to ensure we would make the train in time. It was pretty wild because everyone else wanted to leave! This made it safer for pedestrians overall, but still quite dangerous. We had to watch our for bikere speeding down the mountain. Here are some shots on the way down:
Thanks to Bae’s brisk powerwalking pace she set, we made it to the train in time. Here’s the track of our run down the mountain.
We need to get packed up to leave early tomorrow, so I think I will end the blog here. Plenty more to say about the tour, though, so stay tuned for more commentary on how to watch the tour in person, and get ready for some sick videos.
-Babe