Tour de France comes to St Gervais

Despite not being a bicyclist it was impossible not to get caught up in the excitement of the Tour coming to our village. I'd roughly estimate that the population has quadrupled for the weekend and buntings banners and road graffiti are everywhere.
It didn't start well however; Di texted to say she had the slowest clients ever and G overslept and got hit by the road closures - so after lunch I started to wander up under a threatening sky all on my billy. But lo and behold who's that I spy on the Pont Diablo? My climbing wall friend S and his wife M. They were thinking of walking up the big hill to Bettex, but passing the gondola we were astounded to see no queue - result!
The ride up was impressive, the final climb snaked beneath us and from our sky high vantage point we could see what looked to be the name of every rider sprayed onto the bends, we also got to see the scale of the crowds lining the route.

When we got to the top we grabbed a drink and wandered over to see how close we could get to the finish line - astonishingly close was the answer, as in right on it. When the heavens finally opened we took shelter under some trees on the banking - turned out to be an even better view. We could see the big screen and saw the rain wreaking havoc on the riders ( the chap in the green jersey took an awful looking spill - you can make out his torn clothes and blood stained dressings on the original photo in my collage).

At a little before half five the riders arrived to an ear splitting cheer - it was astounding how fast they got up the final hill.

As the event moved into party mode for some and the riders started to depart we decided to walk down in the torrential but warm rain. "This way" said M and promptly led us into the team enclosures, we got a few raised eyebrows but wandered on. I was surprised how fast the riders and teams set off to move to the next stage, I guess they use it as a cool down, but it was very impressive seeing the bikes overtaking cars and motorbikes on the hairpin bends on the way down - you could see a lot of them laughing and joking at speeds that would make me feel sick, experts at what they do, always a pleasure to see.
All in all a grand day out.


Philosophy Friday
You're only given one little spark of madness.
You mustn't lose it.
Robin Williams, RIP.