Watching the Tour de France in Lourdes

We had come to Lourdes specifically to watch the finish of le Tour de France stage 13, so we were on a mission for a good view. Waking up relatively early, we started our day with a freshly baked croissant and a walk along the last kilometre of the route to get our bearings.

At the 'flamme rouge', the red kite which marks the 1km point

After getting as close as we could to the finish line and realizing that there was no way we were getting anywhere near the final 200m due to the crowds that had already gathered, we found a position on a bend 350m from the finish, and settled there for the long wait. We had borrowed (is it still borrowed if you didn’t ask permission?) a blanket from the hotel we were staying at and claimed an area at the barriers, complete with lunch, snacks, sunscreen and plenty of water and Coke to get us through till 5pm.

our position, just shy of 350m

At about 3:45pm le Caravane, the publicity parade of all the sponsors, came through Lourdes and threw hundreds of samples of their products to the eager crowd: washing powder, water, lanyards, Haribo (the crowd favourite by far), hats and crisps to name just a few…apparently 39% of Tour de France spectators come solely for the Caravan freebies they can score, and sponsors spend hundreds of thousands of Euros on the spectacle:

le Caravane

One of the strangest things about being at the Tour de France is that you really have no idea what’s going on in the race unless you speak French well enough to understand more than maillot jaune (which we don’t). Most of our updates have come from text messages from friends and family back in Australia who are up at ridiculous hours of the morning watching the broadcast – so we knew to expect Thor Hushovd ahead of the peleton, after he broke away in the mountains. Sure enough, seconds after a helicopter emerged on the horizon the Garmin-Cervélo rider appeared:

Thor arriving ahead of the peloton

It was a great atmosphere, and we were lucky enough to be positioned on a bend so we could see the cyclists approaching and snap a few photos. Thankfully we were far enough from the finish line to avoid being crushed by the crowds, and apart from excessive heat and a bit too much waiting around it was a great experience.