Tuesday 12 July 2016

Stage 10 - Back in the saddle

Enough of that rest day nonsense, it's stage 10 from Escaldes-Engordany in Andorra to Revel in the Haute-Garone department. I think I've said more than enough about Andorra but in comparison to Revel it's a metropolis.

Revel (pronounced as in reveal without the a, rather than as in the chocolate...I've no idea really I make this stuff up) is a town of just a 10k population, a nice church and a semi covered town square...it is from the 14th century but still. What is in no doubt is that the town would have paid a large sum to be an 'arrive ville'.

It sits to the east of Toulouse and very close to Carcassone, where stage 11 starts tomorrow and that's all I have on it.

I left Foix earlier this morning for the 60 mile mainly motorway based drive (one peage, no headbutt or stall) and was on the course for the last 10 miles. This part of France seems to pride itself on those country roads where the trees line the road on either side as if giving a guard of honour. I was just entering the town when I found an Intermarche car park and parked up. None of your 2 hours free and then we reserve the right to own your car and its contents here.

Though the centre of the town (sorry centre ville) was less than a mile away the banner said 10km to go. So I got the bike out, got changed (you can do anything in a French car park) and set out to ride the last 10km of the course.

The first 2km were very pleasant, then a small rise at 8% but that's ok, the road lined with camper vans and spectators continued to rise and rise until 6kms to go. (It turned out that I had failed to read my ride book properly as I should have known that what I climbed was the third category Cote de Saint Ferrol). Over the top and a left turn it was past the final route barree and on to the descent. No cars and a nice wide road meant a lovely run until the road flattened out at the 3km mark. From here I filmed it, very slowly as I had my phone finely balanced in one hand, until 200 metres out where they always stop you going any further. At least I knew once I had gone under the 3km banner I would get the same time if I crashed (Cycling based joke alert).

On the way back to the car I met a couple of English cyclists and we exchanged our plans for the next couple of days. The plans would have been identical but for the fact they had their hotel booking cancelled through booking.com and now couldn't get a replacement for the Mont Ventoux stage on Thursday (Bastille Day). There will be a lot said about Mont Ventoux over the next couple of days but for now I'm in denial.

Back at the car, changed and walked back into town, not 10km but the 1km across the partially covered town square no less. Came across two Norwegians who, lunch in hand where heading out towards the 10km banner and back up the course away from the finish. I pointed them in the right direction and made for the finish myself. I nearly insisted the three of us did the viking chant but thought it might have brought on another storm.

At the finish I got myself a spot at the 200m to go post, survived the frenzied feeding of the crowd, with freebies and was entertained by a bad version of the Credit Lyonais Lion who quite frankly performed a very poor cartwheel.

The 200m point today is where they turn the vehicles off the course, only the most important vehicles may actually go over the finish line. This point is manned by the same fella every day, think Mike from Breaking Bad in looks and temperament. He not only keeps the cars away, he checks passes with religious zeal and stops anything untoward happening on his patch with the guys giving out the
freebies. He  seems to be on personal terms with every policeman. The Police are very visible on the race. In addition to the motorbikes, on the open road there are Police at every junction and at the finish there are Police on both sides of the road every 50 metres or so. All of the Police and Mike from breaking bad are armed with the most potent weapon on the Tour, the whistle. They don't just blow it they assault it with a violence totally uncalled for.  Cycling when shouldn't be...PEEP climbing the barrier to cross the course...PEEP stepping one inch off the curb when there is nothing coming...PEEP. I freeze in panic as soon as I hear one.

Totally ignored the caravan today (well almost - see Tat of the day) and tried not to get annoyed with
the horrible child to my left.

The two 'sweepers' came through and made sure all the debris from the caravan was clear from the road and that no one is sitting on the barriers, who may fall into the road. The tv camera crane is lowered across the road, the helicopter can be seen in the distance and we are ready to go.

The commentator who has been doing a valiant job all afternoon of filling air time, suddenly has to resort to just shouting names, today it is mainly Peter Sagan and Michael Matthews. As they came by me the 6 leaders were in full on sprint mode. These aren't sprinters, these are Puncheurs (Punchy riders who like a climb thrown in) and they were throwing their bikes around to win the sprint. The last name the commentator utters before letting out a sigh following 5 hours of non-stop commentary, is Matthews and he has won the stage. There had been a break of 15 today, which is how many places are awarded any benefit on the line, so once the second half of the break had finished the peleton knew there was nothing to fight for and sat up and coasted home. Breaks are not usually successful but the quality and size of this group meant that it had a much better chance, and indeed did stay away.

I made my way back to the car, for once I had a view of the presentations and saw all of the stage prizes and jerseys awarded. Tomorrow stage is in a much bigger town so the whole of the Tour was
getting out of Revel and moving to Carcassone on the one road.

I'm staying in a B&B in Villedubert, a village 5 miles outside of Carcassone and roughly 35 miles from Revel. My room is a converted summer house and while maybe not my taste of homely decor, it is lovely. After tonight I think I only have one single night hotel left which should make things a little easier for the rest of the trip.

Dinner was in Tabes and it was blooming freezing and I ate a pizza.

Tomorrow will be a slightly different day as I am only going to the stage start. I have a pass to the start village and then I move on to Carpentras via Avignon to be ready for the big Bastille Day stage finishing on the Beast of Provence, Mont Ventoux. So it may be more about the locations than the cycling tomorrow.

Stats in your eyes
Miles Driven - 1845
Miles cycled - 130 HC, cat 1, cat 3 and 3x cat 4
Cheese of the day - rest of the manchego
Tat of the day - pair of Kyrs oversized glasses that were the last thing on my list of freebies to collect :)
Flag seen on tele - Yes
Flag lowered a bit too far while finding camera on phone and not noticing the solo rider coming through - Yes
Number of times whistled at (by authority) - none
Number of times whistled at by the General public - also none.


Mike from Breaking Bad ruling his area 

A partially covered town square 

A thing doing what things do 

Michael Matthews at his stage win presentation 

The peloton roles in 

Tony Galloping of France attacked in the second group

The legend Jens Voight does a piece to camera 

One of thousands of decorated roundabouts in France 

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