Given it was on our doorstep it would have been rude not to find out what all the fuss was about. To be perfectly honest, before finding out that the 14th stage of the Tour de France would be leaving from a village less than 15 km from where we were staying, neither of us had shown that much interest. We were vaguely aware that some crazy men in lycra were pedalling thousands of miles around the country in the blazing heat but that was about it. We were therefore surprised by how infectious it became once we arrived. There were thousands of spectators dancing to the beat of a samba band, wearing bight yellow and jumping to catch all the freebies thrown in to the crowd by the parade of sponsor’s caravans. It was amazing how excited some people got over a sachet of free soap powder! We figured that since we were there we my as well join in so decked in our bight yellow we jumped and screamed with the best of them and managed to bag a cake, a sickly gel drink and the illusive soap powder!!!!!! (It was worth the dirty look from the french woman whose hands Mike ripped it out of).
The riders made an appearance and the race kicked off with an amazing fly by from the french version of the red arrows trailing the blue, blanc rouge in the their wake!!!
Terrible pictures I know but they were so fast!
What made the trip even better was the fact that our guy was in the lead (much to the disgust of the Australian that I was stood next to - ha ha). Anyway we are now converted and keeping an eye on whether he can manage to hold on to his lead - fingers crossed.
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