Day 13-Thursday

Our first day watching the Tour!   

We were up very early and on the road by 4:15 AM.  At that time the roads were empty, which was good, but the roads were very twisty, and it was much harder to see, so I drove much more slowly than I would in the daytime. Beginning last night, our GPS was displaying that the only road up to the top of the Col du Soulor, the D-126, was closed.  That wasn’t shocking because during our two previous days of scouting trips, the number of RV’s lining the Tour routes was amazing. 

The sun was just started to rise when we reached the top of the Col de Spandelles.

So our scouting trip paid off, and we took a very narrow back road that took us over the Col de Spandelles, and intersected the D-126 in the village of Ferrieres.  It was now 6:26 AM.  

We were thrilled.  We were on the Tour route!  Now the only question was how close to the top of the Soulor could we get?

Not very close!  We didn’t get very far before we encountered gendarmes who had the road blocked off.  They were polite but emphatic; apologizing for closing the road, so we had to turn around, and find a place to park.  Fortunately, there  were lots of possibilities and we found one that suited our needs.  Unfortunately, we had not seen a boulangerie, so our menu for the day would not include fresh baguettes or croissants.   Fortunately Marie-Hélène had provided us with bread, ham, cheese, and yogurt.

For the next few hours we napped in the car as we were lulled to sleep by the white noise of the stream that ran parallel to the road.

 

When we emerged from our nap many new neighbors had arrived, filling in the empty spaces around us.  Somehow despite the road being closed many people were driving past us.  I guess we’re not the only one who planned how to get a good viewing spot.  

It was now 11 am, the parade of amateur cyclists, VIP cars, and maintenance vehicles was non stop. 

The caravan came by us right on schedule, 2:20 PM.  The caravan is a  parade of Tour sponsors that throw a variety of promotional SWAG into the spectators.  Most of it is what my son, Noah, refers to as “instant garbage”, yet the fans get quite excited about catching these items, just like fans at Fenway Park chasing a foul ball.  Only a few of the items are worth keeping, t-shirts, shopping bags, bottles of water, or cans of Orangina.  The best items are shopping bags which we’ve been using for years.  

Once the excitement of the caravan has passed, things get very quiet as fans retreated to the shade of their vehicles, tents, or RV’s in order to escape the 97° temps.

Finally, around 4 pm, after waiting nearly 9 hours, the riders arrived, and 9 minutes later the last rider passed us. Since there were no significant climbs prior to arriving in Ferrieres, the riders were bunched into two groups, followed by just two stragglers who were minutes behind the peloton.  

This is the lead group with Ben Healy, from Ireland, in the yellow jersey, and Tadej Pocagar, in the white jersey.  Pocagar won the stage and took over the yellow jersey.  Most likely for keeps. 

The Lanterne Rouge

This was the first mountain stage of this year’s Tour, the first opportunity for those competing for the yellow jersey, which is awarded on a daily basis to the rider with the best cumulative time, to gain some advantage over their opponents.  It was impossible for us to read the numbers on the backs of any of the riders since they were going so fast, but we could at least distinguish the different teams by their jerseys.  

Once the last rider, the Lanterne Rouge, passed us, we packed up our gear and headed back to Arreau.  The traffic was very slow and heavy, so it took us 2 ½ hours to get back to the hotel.  We were hot and exhausted, so we showered and headed for dinner at the hotel.

Having eaten very little since we got up at 4 AM, we were very hungry so our dinner of chilled pea soup with burrata cheese, roasted lamb, and pound cake with crème Anglais was especially welcome.