The Tour
A couple days ago I found out that the Tour de France would be coming through Montpellier. Since I was only a half hour away by train, I knew I had to check it out.
And it was worth it. The whole city was buzzing with people. The fenced-off route began in the central square and was lined with crowds as it headed towards the city limits. Before the riders began, there was a strange - and awe-inspiring - parade of promotional floats. Giant 10-ft high six-packs of beer in pickup trucks, larger-than-life models of bikers on top of a miniature set of mountains (which in turn was on top of a Mini)… it will probably make more sense with pictures:
I watched a few of the teams speed by (today was time trials):
And then I decided to get behind the scenes. The teams were all warming up behind a barricade, so I flashed the press pass and got inside…
There he was! Lance Armstrong, and the Kazakhstani team he’s bizarrely a member of, were surrounded by a crowd of probably 200 people. When he walked the 100m to the starting line, he was escorted by a team of policemen holding hands in a circle. It was complete chaos.
I’m almost inspired to start biking. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It would help to be living in one place … and to have a bike …
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