My Tour de France

I've long loved staying up late to watch the Tour de France back home, falling asleep on the couch and trying to get up the next day with only a few hours sleep. So it's also been a bit of a dream of mine to ride along the route of Le Tour one day. After several failed attempts at trying to hire a road bike in France while still in Australia, I eventually tracked down a place near Montpellier where I hired an awesome carbon fibre bike worth about $AU5000. While it was a two hour drive out of our way to get to the start point of stage 13 of Le Tour, I'm so glad we made the trip. My original plan was to ride the whole 196km from Rodez to Revel but to save Sandra and the kids a long drive in the campervan on some very hilly and narrow roads, the plan was revised to ride out to an interesting point and back again to the campsite.
The start of stage 13 (which will be held on Sat 17 July) is at the high point of Rodez with the beautiful Cathedrale de Notre Dame in the background. However, the start line itself was a rather disappointing yellow flag twisted around itself over the road. I half-expected to see local shops flogging Tour de France merchandise and more of a fuss made in the town, but everyone seemed very laissez-faire about the world's attention on their town for a day next month. Perhaps the excitement builds a bit closer to the event.
Nevertheless, I was excited enough - even if I was the only fool in town having my photo taken in front of a bit of yellow string across the road!

On Friday morning (11 June) I got up nice and early, eager for the ride ... only not quite sure which direction the tour route actually went out of Rodez. I sure as hell hope Cadel Evans has his GPS tucked in the back of his cycling jersey like I did, because I ended up going 10kms around Rodez before I eventually found the road to the first town on this year's route - Flavin. So after stopping a dozen times, wasting about an hour talking to locals who had no idea what I was trying to say, I was eventually under way only to then go another couple of kilometres down a really dodgy farm road. Sure I was yet again completely lost, I pulled out the GPS again to get back on track but still had trouble making sense of the directions. Quickly though I discovered that while the actual tour road route is posted online at the start of June each year, the real best way to find out which direction the cyclists will take is to follow the road works. Sure enough, every time I saw a truck and a heap of gravel on the side of the road, I could confirm that I was on the right path as they get the roads ready for the big boys and their expensive toys.
About 20kms into the trip I hit some incredibly strong winds that were practically pushing me back up the downhill rides. When I rounded tight curves (without the protection of a pelaton Cadel!), I reckon I was nearly blown off several times. Nevertheless, as I descended down some hills toward Cassagne-Begohnes, I past some beautiful buildings including the Abbey de Bonnecombe (pictured). As I stopped several times to take pictures and video footage, I could hear my triathlon coach Barb telling me off for being slack and telling me to pick up the pace. But aside from the photography, the pace was tough when you have to pedal hard downhill into the wind to get up to 20kph. Eventually I went past Cassagne-Begohnes and turned around at a little place called Begon which was about 40km into the ride, dreading the climb back up the hills I had just descended. But here the wind was my friend and I now regret turning around so early as the climb back up hill and into Cassagne-Begohnes was simple. Out of water and forgetting that France likes to close down between noon and 2.30pm I was running out of options for a drink stop. Thankfully a tiny pub was open with dozens of road workers downing the local brew. The local French 'blokes' looked a bit bemused when an Aussie in lycra walked in to order a couple of lemonades (I didn't think beer would help my performance), and to fill up my drink bottles. But as they say here - c'est la vie! Eventually I made it back to Rodez, clocking up just 90kms in the end, and while very hot and sun-burnt had an excellent experience.
I truly recommend riding one of the stages if you're a tour enthusiast. I met several riders enroute (all locals I think), but if you do try to follow the roads it's best with another rider to not only share the navigation work, but also the head winds. It'd be so much more fun riding with a group to draft occasionally on the tough bits to have more energy to ride further.
We'll be in Rotterdam in Holland to see the first stage of Le Tour on 3 July, but will be back home to see the last several stages, so I can't wait to stay up late on the couch back home in Melbourne to watch the boys make light work of my little foray into their world.