Stage 16 Tour de France: live from the road

Stage 16 Tour de France: from the road

Well, the irony is impressive.

After I wrote in my Guide to Cycling in France, for Tour stages, where you plan to ride up a mountain, you MUST ride up a few hours before hand.

I also wrote that you can ignore the gendarmerie. Both of these insights proved true yesterday.

After driving over the Col du Marie Blanque, we parked at Bielle, just off the Tour course, and rode the 10km to the base of the Aubisque. I had a strong feeling we'd be stopped up the road but we proceeded anyway.

The climb ascended very nicely for a bit; 5% or so allowed a cracking tempo.

Once we cleared Eaux Bonnes (a beautiful village), it got much much steeper.

We passed a cracking switchback—perfect for photos—but decided to keep going. A guy coming down told us the road was closed.

Sure enough, 2 more km up the road, a gendarme pulled us off the road. Luckily, it was at a cafe, with coffee and Le Tour on TV.

We settled in, but then decided we should head down to the hairpin, as our corner was a super high speed descent. Unfortunately it was too late to head down the road, as the gendarme foiled us again. He did go to his car for a bit, which would have given us the chance to make a run for it, but we weren't all kitted up.

The caravan started rolling through but there was hardly any schwag thrown out at all. The caravanieres were descending like madmen, and I guess it is dangerous to have people hanging out the side of vehicles.

I did manage to score an Francais de Jeux t-shirt though, so all was not lost.

As the sound of choppers got closer, we could eventually see the team cars, way, way up the mountain.

It's difficult to describe the tension and excitement of the approaching riders. You have to experience it.

It's madness, and we love it.

Watching the TV, we knew Armstrong was in a break (not a bad feat for a near 40 year old).

We could hear cheers up the mountain and eventually we could see riders whizzing through the trees, back and forward down the descent.

Media rolled through as about 6-10 riders absolutely mach'd past our position. It was tricky to get photos at the speed they were travelling, so I tried panning with a shutter of about 1/320s, and then grab stills on the servo drive at 1/1000s.

As you can see, some worked.

After the very stretched out peloton was past, we quickly mounted our bikes and descended at warp speed, collecting some Tour signage as souvenirs.

The day after next, we go to watch the final day of climbing, from the Marie Blanque. I really wanted to get the riders on a climb with multiple switchbacks, but it is not to be (unless we go to the Soulor, which has a ripping switchback).

Enjoy!