This year the tour finished a stage in to Bagnères de Bigorre, our nearest town. It always comes quite close but does not always pass through Bagnères. In the end we actually decided to go and watch it from a spot in the mountains, just after they finished the last climb as it was going to be packed in town. Lots of people told us that we needed to get up at the crack of dawn and be at our chosen viewing spot by 7am AT THE LATEST - the tour passed through Payolle where we planned on being at about 3.30pm! However we ignored them and sauntered up there for lunch, arriving about 12ish. There was a nice space the size of our car just of the road that we slotted in to before having lunch under a tree and mooshing around a bit. It was pretty busy, but we parked along the very end and found a bit of road with only a few people where we got an excellent view. Before the bikes come through there is 'The Caravan' which is a lot of themed vehicles advertising the various sponsors, they throw hats and other rather crappy freebies as they drive by. The haribo where good though.
We were on a quite flat piece of road along which the bikes went at an astonishing speed. I don't know how fast, but it was highlighted particularly by the speed of the support cars and motor bikes which really made you feel you were standing too close to a very fast road.
You didn't really get a feel for the race as a whole because you only saw the bikes for a few seconds, then they were past and they were going so fast you couldn't really see who was who. But overall it was a fun day as the atmosphere was great, we chatted with a few people and afterwards we hung around and had a BBQ in the woods while we waited for the traffic jam back in to town to die down.
My bro who is visiting watches on TV and was keen to see it in real life. He will be back other years apparently. We will try to station ourselves on a climb next time as the cyclists are going slower - but they are the favored spots.
Looks like a lovely day out
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