Tour de France: stage 21

My brother and I were among the first crazy fans on the Champs Élysées and we set up in our family’s traditionally preferred spot. After awhile, I wandered down towards the finish line to say hi to my friends who paint the Škoda logos there.

 

While I was there, Jean Louis Piaget, the man who had so kindly given Fien and I VIP badges at the time trial, spotted me and gave me 2 VIP passes! I was floored and, after thanking him profusely, skipped and sprinted up the Champs Élysées to tell my brother.

 

There were several hours yet until the VIP area would be open, so we held our previous spot for the rest of our family. As we waited, we watched tour groups ride up and down the Champs Élysées. One group was clad exclusively in Orica GreenEdge kit and I picked out Robbie McEwen immediately. Prepared for any cycling related situation, I blew up my inflatable OGE guitar and, when Robbie looped by again, I waved it and called to him. He recognized me immediately and laughed and waved back, so I was pretty tickled.

 

After the stage’s end, the teams usually take a lap of honor where they sign autographs, high five fans, take in the atmosphere, and soak in the reality of having just completed the Tour de France, cycling’s most prestigious Grand Tour. This year, because the stage was scheduled to end at 10pm instead of its usual 6pm, the lap of honor was unfortunately cancelled. Before we knew there would be no lap, my brother had had shirts printed up for his favorite cyclist, Jens Voigt, who is likely to retire this year.

 

At 5pm, my brother and I headed down to the VIP area where Geraldine, one of the crew members I’d seen several times before but had never spoken with, generously gave us passes that would get us in to the seats immediately after the finish line! We bolted to the stands and grabbed 2 seats on the second row. The camera truck blocked part of the view of the finish line itself but it was still an amazing view towards the line and all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe.

 

We started talking with the man next to us who was wearing a Garmin shirt and turned out to be from Ottawa. The three hours between sitting down and when the peloton first entered the Champs Élysées flew by as the 3 of us swapped cycling stories and talked like old friends. Before we knew it, the riders had arrived in Paris and Team Sky led the peloton on its first lap of the Champs Élysées. Froome in yellow.

 

With the unusual exception of Alpe d’Huez this year, the Champs Élysées is the only place in the entire Tour that the cyclists pass more than once. This year they completed 10 laps, meaning spectators saw them whizz by 20 times.

 

In order to protect the yellow jersey from potential crashes, Sky led the next lap as well.

 

Just to give you a sense of the length of the peloton, this sequence captures the bulk of the 169 remaining riders.

 

The second half of lap 2. Quintana in polka dots.

 

By the third lap, cyclists were launching attacks and trying to make a breakaway.

 

The peloton wasn’t far behind. Left to right: Millar, AG2R rider, Lars Bak, Bodnar, De Marchi, Froome.

 

David Millar was rapidly moving to the front of the peloton by the return of the third lap.

 

When the fourth lap came by, there was a breakaway of 4.

 

Steve Morabito tried to bridge the gap but couldn’t.

 

We watched excitedly as 2 riders got dropped and Flecha and Millar rode neck and neck while I screamed myself horse.

 

When it wants to, the peloton reaches incredible speeds, making it sometimes hard to photograph. Below, a rider from Europcar, Rein Taaramae in the Estonian champion’s jersey for Cofidis, and a rider from Team Sky.

 

It was still Flecha and Millar with a lead of about 20 seconds on the fifth lap.

 

An Argos rider took a drink, finished off his water bottle, and chucked it aside. I was so focused on watching the race that I was momentarily startled and confused to see something fly through the air and land 10 feet away. One of the police picked up the bottle and handed it off to a lucky spectator.

 

Coming back down the Champs Élysées, Millar and Flecha were still going strong.

 

The peloton. Marcus Burghardt (center).

 

The French national champion, Arthur Vichot, crashed somewhere along the way and had a bike change as he rounded the Arc de Triomohe. The poor guy looked so ready to be done.

 

No change in the breakaway with lap 6.

 

Dmitri Muravyev of Astana tried to catch the escapees.

 

Peter Velitis (right).

 

Millar pulled away from Flecha and now rode alone.

 

Flecha and Muravyev tried to stay ahead of the peloton.

 

Lap 7 and Millar was still on his own.

 

Millar was still holding on in lap 8 but Jeremy Roy caught and passed him before long.

 

The peloton was hot on their heels and reeled in the breakaway in time for the sprinters’ teams to set up their lead out trains for the tenth and final lap. Cav, Kittel, and Greipel, all of whom had won stages in the centennial Tour, seemed virtually level as they approached the finish. I practically held my breath as I waited to to see who would cross the line first. The Tour came full circle as Kittel won both the first and final stages!

 

As the peloton came in, the Argos riders and staff congratulated each other on the team’s stage win.

 

Froome and his Sky teammates, visible on the big screen, rejoiced in winning the yellow jersey.

 

Meanwhile, Jens Voigt, who had just completed the last Tour de France of his career, took a quiet moment to himself.

 

As Team Sky rode past, the media chased and surrounded Froome and his teammates.

 

Eventually they noticed Jens.

 

The cyclists all turned around at various points along the Champs Élysées to return to their team buses. When Flecha rode by, I called out to him and was pretty excited to see him recognize me and wave to me. It’s not every day I get to say hi to a cyclist I know who was just in a big breakaway on the Champs Élysées!

 

Even though we had a decent view of the podium for the first time in our spectating careers, we figured we could watch the awards ceremony on TV later and made our way to the buses. Geraldine again was immensely giving and let my brother and I in, so we went straight to Garmin. Christian Vande Velde mingled, David Millar ran around in his suit, kids distributed the celebratory champagne, and Jack Bauer, one of my favorite cyclists, struck up a conversation with me, recognizing me as the loud Canadian who’d cheered for him and his teammates over the last 3 weeks. I probably shouldn’t be shocked but it really surprised me to realize that even with everything on their minds as they prepared for or wound down from each stage, they had truly noticed me. In hindsight, I probably didn’t need to be quite so loud, but I’m sure that won’t change anything in the future.

 

From Garmin, we went to see if we could find Jens Voigt at the RadioShack bus. Sure enough, he was out front still in his kit and gabbing away with friends, teammates, guests, and fans. We waited patiently and then I got to introduce Jens to David, which was a great experience.

 

At BMC, I congratulated Marcus Burghardt on completing another Tour as he got ready to celebrate his accomplishment with his team and family. There was a big crowd at the AG2R bus as Christophe Riblon showed off his award for most combative ride. Most of the cyclists had left in team cars but the Belkin boys put on their backpacks and biked off to their hotel.

 

The night was coming to an end so we walked up a quiet side street to avoid the mobs. A contained crowd hustled down the street and I immediately recognized it as Froome and Quintana, wearing their usual jerseys as opposed to yellow and white respectively, surrounded by security. It was almost eerie how quiet it was and David gently called out, “Congratulations, Chris,” and Chris paused and turned to thank him.

 

David walked back to his place while I headed to the Eiffel Tower, as is tradition. As usual, a Belgian TV crew was wrapping up their post-Tour show. In the past, we’ve seen Eddy Merckx and Kris Boeckmans there but there were no cyclists to be seen tonight.

 

As expected, there were plenty of people wandering about. I’m not sure what the rationale was, but the Eiffel Tower was lit up in colors I’d never seen before and it looked quite pretty against the black sky.