Le Tour - Stage 4, Montpellier

Yesterday I hopped on a TGV train early in the morning from Paris, with great excitement for i was heading to Montpellier for the day to see stage 4 of 'Le Tour'. Stage 4, was designated as a team time trial stage. Starting in central Montpellier, it wound its way out of town towards the North West, around the local countryside and finally back into the South West of Montpellier. In total 39km.

Montepellier is 765km from Paris, (it was way down on the south coast) Mercifially the TGV is super, super fast, and the trip on the train was a mere 3hrs and 20 mins. When I booked my tickets for the TGV, it was only an extra 4 euros to travel first class, so I thought bugger it, why the hell not and I went down there in style.

Lets have a quick look at what my extra 4 euro got me on this journey. Apart from the extra legroom and slightly further reclining seat than 2nd class, my four euros bought me a powerpoint for the entire journey. Thats it. So had I had wanted to plug in my waffle iron and make waffles for my fellow passengers, I had the ability to do so. Sucked in to all those plebs in 2nd class without their waffles.

After my early start in Paris, I arrived in Montpellier just before lunch time, and with maps in hand, proceeded to start my walk towards where I hoped I would find the finish line for Stage 4 of 'Le Tour'. Sure enough about 5 km from the centre of the city, I found myself the finish line, it was still a little early, so there were a lot of people milling around, and generally setting everything up. I was looking out for Phil Ligett, but sadly could not find him anywhere. I could easily have taken up a position right on the finish line if I so desired, but alas, I wanted a true, rustique experience of 'Le Tour', so I proceeded to walk back up the route of the track, in the hope to get outside the city limits and into the local countryside.

I walked down to the 1km to go sign, which was still in the city, so I kept walking, about another 500m up the road, I could tell I was starting to get to the outskirts of town, as the houses were starting to thin out. A short walk up the hill was the 2km to go sign, and now I was really out of town. I wandered down the other side of the hill and around the corner and took up a position on the side of the road next to a paddock, where there were already quite a few locals milling on the shady side of the road (silly me was all by myself on the sunny side of the road) with keen anticipation of the days events to come.

I sat around for about and hour and slowly the crowd began to build. At about 1:30 there was a lot of noise coming from further down the road, and all of a sudden all the kids (and everyone else) who was sensibly sitting in the shade came running to the road. Kids were shouting to their parents "Regarde, Regarde!!" (look, look) with an excited glint in their eyes as though Santa Claus was coming. You know what, that didn't end up being too far from the truth.

Off in the distance around the corner I saw what looked like a big yellow lion driving up the hill, this was quickly followed by a giant 4 pack of bottled water also driving up the hill. Not far after that, a massive tyre came up the hill, which was followed by a guy driving a giant cup of coffee. For the next hour solid, I was bombarded by advertising, in a kind of bizzare, Gay Mardi Gras style float system, as advertiser after advertiser came driving past in ever more elaborate advertising 'floats'. Each seemingly trying to outdo each other in grandness and strangness.

This is what is called 'Le Caravane'. Every official sponsor of 'Le Tour' plus all of the major sponsors of the 20 teams, make up all of these elaborate floats, that go around about a half an hour before the cyclists go through on the entire route of 'Le Tour'.

For kids, its like christmas time, as they are throwing out from their floats, all sorts of advertising goodies, that the kids fight over, like hats, key rings, lollies, coffee and there was even one float that was for a washing detergent that was throwing out free samples of their product. I managed to score myself some choice goodies. I even copped a packet of chips right in the chest having been thrown from one of the floats at a distance of about 1 meter.

Anyway once 'Le Caravane' had finished bombarding me with its commercial delights, it was time for the serious cycling to begin. Because I had taken up a spot a bit outside town, it was full of locals and by 2:30 the crowd and begun to swell along the road.

There appears to be quite an important ettiquite involved as the riders approach, and any of you who have watched the race on tv will see this occuring. Basically, everyone just stands around on the road waiting (or the sensible people sit in the shade off the road) Then about 30 seconds before a group of riders come through, an escort of two police motorcycles will come through to clear people off the road. Once the police cycles have gone through, people walk back onto the road to stand where they were prior to the police bikes coming through. For those sitting off to the side in the shade, the police bikes going through is their sign to get up and head over to the road in anticipation of the cyclists. So everyone stands on the road to watch the cyclists come towards them, then about 5 second before the cyclists come past you, you just casually step off to the side of the road.

Where I was standing on the side of the road, the cyclists were coming to my side of the road, in order to take a bend just up the road and as such it suprised me how close I actually was to most of the riders. Some of them rolled on by, I estimate no more than 1ft from my feet. I could have stuck my arm out and coathangered anyone I wanted. It suprises me that there are not more incidents with spectators.

I managed to cheer on all of the Aussies as they went past, and generally everyone else as well. There was a pretty good atmosphere amongst the spectators and it was a fun ol day.

All in all I must say it was a much better way to see the action, out with the locals, in a spot on the road where there were no barricades. However for the last group, I did head up the road to the 2km to go sign, to start my long walk back in to town a bit earlier. As such, when Lance Armstrong and Team Astana went past, I managed to get myself on TV! So there is another one to chalk up.

(Here is the video below from the official Tour Coverage, see if you can spot me on the left just after the 2km sign)