Le Tour de France

We took the train to Grenoble from Colmar on Wednesday in order to get back to the Alps in time to watch the Tour de France come through on Friday. With the advice of some friends who went in the past they recommended we arrive a few days early and stack out a camping spot.We rode from the Grenoble train station into the quiet hills around the city where we met up with Nicholas, our host from couchsurfing. He welcomed us into the large home that he shares with several roommates, and we talked about our tour and he shared advice and his experiences from his two year bike tour before sitting down to dinner with the rest of the house mates.

The next morning, we got back on the bikes and set off for Alpe d’Huez, the legendary mountain stage where we wanted to watch the race. The bottom of the mountain was a 50km ride from Grenoble, which we were able to complete by mid afternoon. Once in Bourg d’Oisans at the base of the mountain, we stocked up on food for the weekend not knowing what we would be able to find higher up.

Once ready to climb, we made our way to the mountain and began our ride, counting down the 21 switchbacks to the top. Even though the race was still a day away, the area was already electric with excitement and plenty of partying going on. Almost all available space on the side of the road was filled with RVs, some with televisions watching the race and others with their own DJ’s playing music. We continued to ride up hoping to find a spot for our tent along the way until we reached the Dutch Corner, the section of the mountain that is traditionaly filled with Holland’s biggest fans whenever the Tour comes up Alpe d’Huez.

A Dutch fan getting a ride from Matt

We stopped to snap some photos of the area when a couple of young Dutch guys started encouraging us to keep going. We talked with them a bit and they said that they were camping in the grass above Dutch Corner, and invited us to do the same. Seeing how great of a party they were having, we knew that we would be stopping for the night there, but not until we finished climbing the last 5.5 km to the top. We kept riding and eventually hit the summit, where we found another grocery store to buy more food for the weekend and descended back down to Dutch Corner.

While looking for a spot to pitch the tent, we met a fellow American who had come to watch the race as a part of a guide business that her boyfriend owned. She was staking out a spot for their clients to watch the race the next day, so we invited her to come down to the party with us. After going back down to the street, we found the guys that we spoke with earlier and chatted with them, while watching the Dutch fans encourage riders still climbing the mountains and stopping traffic by dancing in the streets to their favorite songs. We also met another group of fans that were prepared and brought pallets to build a fire, which was great to stand around during the cool night hours.

The next morning, we awoke to an even more energized race day atmosphere. Surprisingly, cars and RVs still continued to march up the mountain throughout the day while even more cyclists came to tackle the famous climb. We spent the day hanging out around Dutch Corner and socializing with all of the people we had met the night before.

The guys who had the fire also had a tv and were able to turn on the race to watch the portion of the stage preceding Alpe d’Huez. We watched the race unfold and turned to the streets before the lead riders came through.

The street was completely filled with fans with just enough room for the riders and official vehicles to get through. We saw Alberto Contador come through in the lead with a good gap over the other riders that would eventually catch him. The Dutch fans surrounding us cheered loudly for all of the riders, but were especially supportive of the Rabobank riders, who were basically pushed up the mountains by the fans.

After the riders had gone by, we returned to the television to see how the last 5km had unfolded. The rest of the day was spent saying goodbye to our new friends that were leaving and watching the nonstop line of vehicles leave the mountain that continued all through the night and morning.

The next morning, we descended off of the mountain and grabbed a quick bite to eat in Bourg d’Oisans. We then left to return to Grenoble where the next Tour de France stage was taking place. Since there is only one road connecting the two towns, there was an immense amount of traffic that was slowly moving along the 50 km highway. Fortunately, we were able to ride past the traffic at our own pace thanks to bike lanes and wide shoulders on the road. Since we had a consistent gradual downhill, we were able to keep our speed up and outpace the cars on the road, even the official cars from the pro teams were driving like maniacs in a hurry to get to the race.

Once back in Grenoble, we stopped back by Nicholas’ house to clean up before going back down to the race. We left in time to arrive at the race and watch the last few riders start their race. Since this stage was a time trial, each rider was riding individually and one would come through every few minutes. We were lucky enough to find an open spot to watch from the barriers on the final straight away as we saw Cadel Evans ride his way to his first Tour de France win. After the race, we tried to see the podium presentations, but were too far away to see much of the action.

With the race over, we headed back to the house to spend one more evening with our hosts, and to prepare our plans to ride to Paris.