Tour De France - La Finale

	So after an early Sunday morning start, at least for me, and a pleasant few hours with a Sunday Times, I arrived on the Champs-Élysées to stand and wait for a group of cyclist to flash past - at least they would pass by seven times... After an hours wait having been entertain for a short time by the sign painters....
From Le Tour 2007 ...

Then along comes a lion! Followed by various other cars, vans, lorries and motorbikes with modifications to advertise the main sponsors - entertaining - but also a little bizarre. Then another long wait - given the size of some of the vehicles, the riders needed to give them a good start - I'm sure some of the large trucks didn't proceed the tour all the way, taking easier routes along less narrow/steep roads to the finishes on the tops of the mountains! The for the real thing, and the gosling for position to see the riders well enough to take pictures - being just at the slowest point on the circuit there we a fare few people with large cameras and lens all trying to get them pointed in the right direction - of course those at the very front didn't even have cameras!!! It would have been really nice to be amongst the professionals - no problems with getting a good view. But lots of hassle from the french police in sharp black suits with little red "police" arm bands - they checked credentials of the same group of six cameramen at least five time - then when two or three more joined them that lead to all sorts of use of mobile phones to clear up if they where all allowed to be there - they all stayed! And then for the real event - bikes flashing past, the clatter of SLR mirrors in sports mode. To many pictures to post here - you'll have to visit the Picasa Album to see them.... And once that was done back to Eurostar - more about that latter... Share on Facebook

Tour De France - Grand Depart

"Le Tour" has visited London - and it was as if everyone in London was on the course watching - which meant a long hunt for a spot that I could see enough of the road to actually get some pictures! But I did find a good one - just round a corner - which slowed the riders down - just a little... I'm not sure who where braver - the riders taking the corners at speed or the camera men trusting their motorbike drivers to take the corner at a sensible speed.

This rider - Nicolas Vogondy I think, was the only one I saw fail to make the corner.

Fabian Cancellara was definately shifting when he past - and he proved to be the fastest on the day.