Le Tour est Fini - Paris

Things have been pretty hectic lately, and I haven’t quite got round to finishing off this last bit of my Tour travelogue. But when a friend sent me this link, I had to get back to it! I got interviewed quite a lot around the way, including by the guy who wrote this… http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2007-07-29-3151115162_x.htm

This article got quoted all around the world! From Australia to Taiwan to North America to Europe.

Here’s a magazine journalist interviewing the bunch of aussies I was with.

So, I arrived in Paris and dropped my stuff off at the hotel in Montmartre before skooting over to the nearest bar to watch the all important last contre la montre. Edge of the seat stuff, as forget Cadel overtaking Contador, suddenly there was the threat of him losing second place to Levi! Still, all well in the end, deep breath and then off to see the sights.

I was happy to see that breakdancing is alive and well!

Then it was time to do some reconnoitring over on the Champs Élysées, where I met up with the pink combie guys again, Mick and Grant.

After a stroll along the Seine, we had some dinner in the Latin Quarter. It was noticeable that the only less than perfect food I had in France was in Paris.

The hostel I was staying in was a bit of a step up from the last time I stayed in Paris, where the cheap places were so full I ended up paying less to have a mattress on the floor! This time I had a half decent breakfast (for France at least – they don’t normally do breakfast really). And a view of sacre cœur!

Then, after all that, it was time to head off to my last day of the tour. So sad, I’d had the best time ever.

Once again, there was no shortage of Australians on the stage, and they were certainly prominent amongst the truly dedicated. I got in at 9am (the cyclists were expected about 4pm) and found I was far from being the first one there. I joined up with this group as they had a top spot right on the bend in front of the arc de triomphe.

I had more fun than you’d expect standing around in the rain waiting for the race. I did get wet socks, but I snuck into a shop and held them under the hand dryer for a while (mmm, warm socks, is there anything better?)

Clearly, a good display of aussie pride was called for on a day like this, so Skippy got a bit of an outing. Flags thrown over the barriers were a bit of a problem for the gendarmes, (“but the sponsors, they have paid for this, yes?”

In amongst the big group of aussies, with a few scattered americans and dutch and norweigans, was one little French lady who’d been there all alone from the very beginning. She stuck it out with a smile all day. Here was another chance for me to practice my French, which she seemed very grateful for as she had no other French people around to talk to at all!

Time went on, the race got closer, the people kept coming and we kept ourselves amused trying to start a Mexican wave. We had some good response from the people across the way, but it fell down somewhere in the middle. There’s always one….

Turned around from my place on the barrier at one point and remembered why I’d got there so early!

Time for my last caravan, although no goodies this time. And this time a few of the million odd transport trucks got in on the action – man, you should have seen them flying round that bend!!! Getting some nice jackknife action happening there.

I didn’t get any photos of the race going past, which it did about 7 times, preferring instead to just soak up the action as it came round. One Spaniard in the crowd had a nifty phone with TV on it, so could give us updates on the breakaways.

And then, all too soon, it was over for the year. After the race, all the teams came round on a victory lap, or glad to have made it lap, however you want to see it, in reverse team position order. Predictor Lotto got a massive cheer, particularly when everyone saw another matilda in the midst! That’s Cadel (well done Cadel) with the flag. We tried to get him over for autographs, but the media guys had all had him first so he was starting to lag a long way behind the rest of the team and apologised but went on.

Jens Voight on the other hand! Jens spent a fair bit of time down under, and is known to have a real fondness for aussies. The group I was with had previously called him over at one of the village departs earlier in the race. He’d had a chat, signed their flag and told them a bit of a story. One of the guys had noticed that he was wearing a black wristband, in the livestrong style (except for the black bit of course) and asked him what it was all about. He replied that Stuey (O’Grady) had had them made up for the rest of the team (team CSC that is), for those times out on the road when things were tough and you were struggling to keep going. And in true aussie style, the inscription? “harden the f**k up”. Love it.

So the guys waved him over again, and he remembered them from last time. Russell, tongue in cheek, held out his aussie cap and next thing you know, after a few complaints about the size of Russell’s head, Jens Voight is riding down the Champs Élysées with an green and gold cap where his CSC one used to be!

Not surprisingly, Russell shown here in his new CSC cap was pretty happy about all this!

There go Discovery, with two jerseys, a third, the team victory (and of course now they don’t exist because they have no sponsor, what sort of world is this)… Well done Alberto….



One more (glorious) night in Paris, then, alas, home to the rain. *sigh.

Next up… Mossley.