DAY 40: Culoz - Tour de France


DAY 40: Wednesday July 11th: Culoz - Stage 10 Tour de France: 17.0k, 5hrs: 18°C to 24°C,  slightly cloudy, blue skies 

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Culoz - centre of town is buzzing

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Milton, Donna, Jan and Ian - to the mountain we go

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Long walk up - no cars allowed

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Lots of Aussies on way

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Chaos at the corner

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Ladies and mens is up same hill

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The men's is in here somewhere

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The Rhone valley from our spot

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A cuppa while waiting for caravan

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Peleton on way to Col du Colombier

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Helicopter hovers - Cadel is coming

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Voeckler leads up mountain

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Chaos turns to pandemonium

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Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins  - Milton in background

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Cadel and Bradley - Ian in background in green shirt

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Stragglers on the mountain

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Ian, Jan, Leo, Milton, Donna, Anca

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And the rest follow 

Such and exciting day - Stage 10 of the Tour de France - Stage 10 Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine. Too many photos to include all. We walked 6k up the Grand Colombier to a point where the gradient was 14.9% - enough to slow down the cyclists to a speed where we could see their faces.  The crowd, the helicopters, caravanne, gendarmes, and the 180 cyclists all on the Grand Colombier was overwhelming on such a perfect day.

The morning started at 7am when we were awoken by the traffic outside our window.  Breakfast supplied by teh chambre d'hote is toast and jam - lucky Donna bought her own meuslii from Paris and we bought some yoghurt the day before.  Off to the Carrefour's supermarket to  stock up for a picnic lunch and dinner tonight.  We arrive at 8.20am to find there's a queue of cyclists in helmets and cleated shoes waiting for the shop to open at 8.30am.  The staff are bustling around in white tee shirts and polka dots - part of the fanfare for the Tour de France and they have their staff photo taken before opening the doors - if only we'd brought our camera - we thought we were only going shopping.  

1 hr later we leave with enough food to feed the peloton and cart it all back to our room where we divi the food up between the 4 of us.(I also bought 6 boxes of Ziplock bags ready for the next trip - don't know where yet, but I'll have the bags ready)  Since there's only our 2 back packs, it's really Milton and Ian who get equal shares and Donna and I are the guides up the mountain.  A quick coffee and it's 10.15when we join the throngs walking up the mountain.  Thousands of people walking, cycling, skating, running, rollerblading up the mountain.  Our plan is to walk about 4 to 5k depending on ow far Donna gets with her infected ankle, but the trekking poles (and voltaren the night before) help. 

Zig zagging our way up, there's so many different nationalities, including lots of Aussies - there's also many French people with Cadel Evans' support banners - he has a huge following in Europe. The kilometres pass easily, and we're almost at the 6k mark when we spy a spot in the shade - it's already 22°C and hotter in the sun.  It's between two campervans on a bend in the road and we decide to have a coffee there while contemplating how much further we'll go.  There's two people sitting in chairs near the road, so we ask if it's OK to stop for a 10 minute coffee break behind them.  Next thing we know they are offering us chairs, tables, mats to sit on.  It seems pretty good to us and what's more, after checking out around us, we think it's the perfect spot to stay for the afternoon.  Introductions all round, and we find that Anca and Leo are from The Netherlands and really nice genuine people who speak pretty good English.  We sit and chat for a while, watching the people coming and going up the mountainside.

Then I go for a short walk just to see what's going on further up.  When I return, Anca has prepared a magnificent meal for everyone - our own picnic is still in our bag untouched, except for the bottle of wine which we share around. Such generosity from people you don't know.  At 2.10pm the action starts.  We walk to the bend in the road where we can se down the valley to Culoz, and we can see the caravanne - the sponsors cars and decorated floats - begin their slow crawl up the mountain - throwing goodies to the outstretched arms of the people lining the road - hats, red caps, yellow caps, spotted caps, lollies, small dried sausages, cakes, water bottles, shirts, key rings, blow up pillows, Nesquick sachets, newspapers - the kids around us are quick to pounce and finish up with arm loads of stuff.  

This lasts for 45 minutes and then nothing - more wandering around mingling.  Finally at 3.10 we hear the helicopters buzzing in the sky, an indication that the cyclists are on their way.  Again we run to the bend to see a small group of cyclists mingled with the support cars, and then a few minutes later the peloton comes into a distant view.  We watch in awe as the procession winds its way up the mountain.  Finally, there's a cavalcade of gendarmes, with a group of 6 cyclists appearing just down below us on the zig.  They are about to zag, when they will come into our full view.  Thomas Voeckler is just in the lead, a Frenchman and crowd favourite from the Europcar team.  There's a few individuals after that, and then the helicopter sits 20 metres almost directly above us, the crowd goes crazy and we know the peloton has arrived.  Cadel Evans is close to the front with Bradley Wiggins in the yellow jersey sitting on his tail.  

The crowd goes wild and closes in on the riders who are absolutely drenched in sweat as they push on up the hill about as fast as I could ride down hill.  There's batches of riders, then one of them comes close to us looking for a toilet in one of the vans - there's none in Leo's van, nor the one next door but there is in the van opposite us.  The owner is very protective and won't let anyone photograph him stripping off and entering the van - Tour de France etiquette not to photograph riders in problematic situations.  Ian waits til hes back on his bike and off and riding before taking a photo.

And then at 4pm, it's finished.  A van with the sign "Fini de Tour de France" arrives and there's a rush to get back down the mountain.  Donna's foot is a bit of a problem, so her and Milton accept the kind offer from Leo and Anca for a ride back down the mountain in their van which has 2 extra seats - Ian and I walk - another 6k on top of our 730k won't make any difference.

After walking down the road to the 3k mark, we realise that if we hurry, we might actally see the end of the day's race on TV back in the room.  We we begin to walk quickly, then  run, cutting through the vineyards and fields to the village centre, then up the road to our room.  Donna and Milton are already there and we'd forgotten to tell them about the TV which is really a projector linked to an amp and a set top box. We're just in time to see the last 3k of the race with Thomas Voeckler winning, and the French crowd going wild.  Wiggins and Evans finish a few minutes later together, so there's no change to the GC rankings.  The girls have a wine, the boys, a few beers while we watch some replays and interviews.

After showers all round, dinner is our left over lunch that we didn't eat, with 3 bottles of wine.  Recounting the day's events and sharing the moments over wine is a great end to a great day.  We're all stuffed, literally - tired and full.  Time for bed.  We have a train and a plane to catch tomorrow.

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Jan cheers on stragglers

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Home in time to see Voeckler win

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Donna and Jan preparing dinner


Created by Jan and Ian Somers in Sandvox