[This originally appeared on Usenet, and is reprinted with permission. -Ed.]
July in Texas is cause for a celebration in a cooler climate. I decided to find a summer vacation which was not totally sedentary and signed on for Breaking Away's package of the first five stages of the Tour de France.
Traveling with my bike is not a new experience, going across the pond to France and England was. Given that I owned both the French and English versions of "Le Petit Prince" and "French For Cats", I considered myself fit to "par lait vous pomme fritte".
The flight over to France started at noon July 1st. I arrived at Roissy Charles De Gaulle on Saturday morning July 2nd. Fortunately the Hotel Mer- cure is at the airport and accessible via a shuttle bus. The tour guides had setup workstands for the arriving guests. I reassembled my bike and then commenced my trip into Paris for a rendezous with the Paris Hash House Harriers. There is nothing like a Hash to take the edge off international traveling. After completing the 15km run in St. Nom-la-Breteche the pack was treated to Hagus and scotch whiskey. Needless to say my jet lag was cured.
Sunday morning the group loaded into vans for the journey to the first stage, la premiere etape. The 234km race route started in Lille, site of the Prolougue, and ended in Armentieres. The 55 mile ride route de jour followed the race route starting halfway through the race circuit, in Saulzoir, and ended 5km from the race finish, in La Chapelle d'Armentieres.
The route passed through many small towns with yellow "Le Tour" signs mark- ing the way. The midpoint of the ride was at the top of a Category 4 hill in Mons-en-Pevelle. A rest stop was in order after this climb. Buying a Coke and a banana at a corner store while biking is the same where ever you go. Doing it on the Tour de France race route is tres bon. The descent out of town was worth the trip up. After arriving in La Chapelle d'Armentieres the bikes were put back on the roof racks and the remainder of the afternoon was spent wait- ing for the the race. One of the vans was outfitted with a portable televis- ion which was tuned to the live broadcast of the race.
A publicity cavalcade of race sponsors in assorted cars and trucks precedes the race. The caravan serves two purposes, advertising and clearing the way. The first sign of the approaching racers are the television helicopters over- head. This provides ample warning to ready your camera. The peloton moves too fast to pick out individual riders in the pack, unless they are wearing a distinctive jersey. Easy targets are solid yellow, green, polka dot, and in the case of Lance Armstrong the solid white with a rainbow across the chest. After the peloton passed we scrambled to the television in the van to watch the finish. This turned out to be the most dramatic ending, next to the final stage sprint, of the entire tour. The sprinters encountered a gendarme standing too far out in the road resulting in a horrific crash.
Our caravan then left La Chapelle d'Armentieres for our hotel in Berck-sur- Mer, a beach resort town on the English Channel. We arrived at the Hotel Neptune in time to watch the stage race highlights. The crash at the sprint finish had been analyzed from six different camera angles. There was no break- away. Everyone was awarded the same time with Chris Boardman of Gan keeping the yellow jersey after his first place in the Prologue. Following dinner a survey of the town's nightlife was in order. Sundays in a weekend beach re- sort are fairly tame. There was one casino but the doorman took exception to my Teva's and Texas sarong, faux pas. The rest of the evening was spent in a bar with a respectable jukebox.
Stage 2 started in Roubaix passing through Belgium enroute to the finish in Boulogne. Our bike ride would not consist of any of the race route but would travel from Berck-sur-Mer into the countryside then follow the coast into Boulogne. The mapped route was 60 miles passing through Merli- mont, Montreuil, Desyres, Samer, Neufchatel-Hardelot, Equihan-Plage and Outreau. This was my favorite ride due to the company of two CAT 2 bikers from Baltimore. Luckily I bought the rounds at the bar the previous even- ing. I know that my prowess with a biere exceeds my riding ability. With my riding partners sufficiently handicapped we headed off. We arrived in Montreuil, a very scenic town with cobblestones. The mapped route out of town got a bit complicated resulting in a missed turn. This happened to be a good mistake taking us into some real French countryside with a ride through a forest. This new route would also went up a 14% grade hill. I learned quite a bit about hill climbing on this leg of the trip. After reaching Samer it was a downhill all the way to the coast. The route up the coast to Boulogne was rolling hills with an awesome descent through Equihen- Plage.
We rode into Boulogne with 2 hours to prepare for the race. A quick survey of the finish line area on Quai Gambetta found it very congested with bleachers and barricades lining the route. Lunch was the next order of bus- iness and a quiet restaurant was found on a side street. Returning to the finish line proved to be non-trivial with a large spectator population crowding the way. The only viewing platform found was a 4" metal beam 6' off the ground 20 yards behind the barricade. Unknown at the time, bleacher seating could be purchased for $4. The local race organizing committee de- termines how seating is procured. In Boulogne a commemorative pin served as the entry pass. Needless to say the metal beam proved to be an unsatis- factory station. The post race mingling past the finish line was very in- teresting and wide open. Again the entire field was awarded the same time with Chris Boardman still in the yellow jersey.
The group then returned to Berck-sur-Mer. After watching the French edition of "Le Simpsons" and the race highlights it was time for dinner. Monday night in a beach town is about as fast as Sunday. We visited another bar without a respectable jukebox and found a Tour publicity car driver. His English was not good and my French was si bon por le chat. Given that he did not know O.J. I considered it a good Fourth of July.
In the morning we checked out of the Hotel Neptune and loaded up the vans for the trek to Stage 3, a 66.5 km Team Time Trial. The race route started in Calais heading south to Guines and onto Fienes. It turned west to Loc- quinghen, then north along the coast at Audinghen, passing through Wissant and Sangatte into the finish at the Eurotunnel/Chunnel entrance.
Our itinerary consisted of riding the entire race route followed by an in- terview session with Greg Lemond. Maps were not a necessity given the yellow "Le Tour" arrows marking the route. The route was pretty challenging and shattered my belief that time trial courses are flat. Many of the teams were on the course warming up during the ride. There were 4 notable climbs on the course but the switchback scaling Mont d'Hubert in Escalles was my favorite.
We ended the ride at the Hotel Meurice, a very fine family owned hotel in the center of Calais. The interview with Lemond occurred at the Hotel Ibis, base camp for Gan. They were the last team scheduled to race with a start- ing slot of 2:50pm. We arrived at the team's hotel before their warm up ride which worked very well for photo opportunities.
To take time to speak with fans is way out of character for most riders, but Lemond is notorious for his accessibility. Here are highlights of the inter- view:
Q: "How do you think Gan will do today?" Lemond: "We don't have much experience riding as a team so i don't know."
During Gan's trial Boardman's handlebar's came loose in addition to some flats and one rider loosing it in a turn. It was interesting that Lemond's handlebar's failed in the same manner as Boardman's during the team warm up ride and were fixed.
Q: "Who do you think will have the best day?" Lemond: "GB is riding real strong."
GB-MG won the trial, not a real surprise given their first place UCI stand- ing.
Q: "How do you feel?" Lemond: "I'm not 100% and have been trying to isolate the cause but the lead shot i am carrying is the main suspect."
He did not have much fire when answering this question and I almost felt like following up by asking if racing was still fun for him.
We returned to Calais proper to watch the remaining teams start, Banesto, ONCE, Maipei-Clas, Castorama, and lastly Gan. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the live coverage on television along with napping in the hotel room. All the teams departed directly from the finish at the Eurotunnel for the train ride under the English Channel to Dover. With the strong showing by GB-MG Johan Museeuw took the yellow jersey.
Journeying to Stage 4 involved crossing the channel via the Calais to Dover ferry. The 204km race course started in Dover, moving inland to Can- terbury and finishing with two circuits of a Category 3 hill in Brighton. Our ride route would not be on the race course but followed the eastern coast of England. The launch site was Hastings, passing through Eastbourne, Beachy Head, Seaford and finishing in Brighton. This was a trial by fire for riding on the left side of the road. The route was very scenic with some challenging hills and a 14% grade descent.
After arriving in Brighton the first order of business was refueling on fish and chips. Following lunch we hiked up Manor Hill road to the top of the Category 3 Elm Grove hill. Fortunately there was a 5' wall surrounding Brighton General hospital to serve as a perch. When the racers arrived for the first circuit there was a two man breakaway of Francisco Cabello and Emmanuel Magnien with the peloton becoming fragmented. The final circuit saw the leader Cabello pull away with Magnien being attacked by Flavio Vanzella. Vanzella's split from the peloton was enough to take the yellow jersey from GB-MG teammate Museeuw.
We then returned to the vans for the trip to the Old Tollgate Hotel in Bramber/Steyning, Sussex. The A27 was extremely congested resembling a parking lot. The team cars for GB-MG were also stuck and the riders had no food to eat. We gave them all of our PowerBars. There is a myth that professional bike racers get chauffeured in a team bus from race to race. Looking at a Fiat full of hungry racers is closer to reality.
The 187km route for Stage 5 started and finished in Portsmouth passing through Southwick, Winchester, Andover, Basingstoke, Alton, Petersfield, and Rowland's Castle. We arrived at the Start/Finish area at Southsea Commons which served as the staging area for the teams. The photo opport- unities were very good. The mapped ride route for the day was a 50 mile loop out to Petersfield returning on the race route to Portsmouth. Most riders decided to stay in the Commons area for the carnival and an air show. Particularly noteworthy was the British Cycling Federation booth. We then retired to a pub on the race route for libations and lunch. As soon as the publicity cavalcade passed we left the pub and found a viewing station on top of a 6' wall on Clarence Parade. When the racers passed there was a sin- gle rider 25m in front of the peloton sprinting for the finish. The lead evaporated with Nicola Minali crossing the line first and the peloton awarded the same time.
This is where I bid adieu to the Tour as it continued on to Cherbourg. I could only look forward to spending all of Friday journeying back to Paris for my return flight to the states Saturday morning. What a long strange trip it had been. By the way what happened to O.J., not!