Stage 6 - A final chance to sprint

After yesterday's taster for the mountains, it was a final chance for the sprinters to come out and play today before the first real test of the Tour, the Pyrenees. Tomorrows stage is relatively straight forward, Saturday is challenging and Sunday is tough, with the finish up an HC mountain (the toughest category of climb there is) the Arcalis in Andorra.

I'd already decided that after yesterday's first climb and some really poor sleeps that I would try and have an easier day. Which basically meant not standing on the boards in the blazing sun for 3 hours, I do understand that doesn't sound that taxing. The sleep situation was compounded last night by tissue paper like walls and a women with an incredible hacking cough and a husband whose snoring sounded like someone pulling furniture across the floor.

Continuing the recent pattern, I didn't go to the start but headed straight to the finish in Montauban (for pronunciation purposes think Monty Don but Monty Bon). The drive was 110
miles but due to the terrain took 3 hours. Bruce (the Aussie accented sat nav) seemed to have a thing for small single lane roads going up and over the side of valleys and back down again. Every time we hit a road with markings I breathed a sigh of relief but it was short lived. I did get my own back on him when I over ruled him on which motorway junction to get off at. Every time I ignored him and he had to start again on the next junction I'm sure he was getting more exasperated and at one point he said ''Mate (he is Australian) are you taking the piss?'.

Bit of a treat on the journey today, no Hors course for me but the race route instead as I was ahead of the road closures. Even with 4 hours at least to go people were setting up there little parties and camper vans were trying to out do each other with flags and banners. It was fun to see the roadside come alive.

I managed to find a bike shop that could mend my wheel, thankfully they spoke a bit English, (though it is fair to say with bikes the hand gestures describing what is wrong are fairly universal) and I still made it into Montauban with 3 hours to go. One of the things I wanted to do was experience the race from every possible angle that I could, so today I decide to watch it from beyond the finish line. In sussing out my route i bumped into the Team Sky media man who was sitting in the car when I draped the flag on the bonnet. We had a quick chat and he confirmed that generally they are delighted with how the race has gone so far. Then came across the BBC man who interviewed me on stage 2, he said 'they didn't use it' when I mentioned by piece to camera....yeah right. On the way back, Chris Boardman was filming a piece for camera for the ITV4 highlights show. He was very nice and was happy to have a picture with me and to wait while his cameraman who was taking it, got the light right. I told Chris about my trip and he was very complimentary. I did ask him if he was missing Ned and he didn't seem able to answer! We did agree on one thing though, which is we see a lot less of the race when you are actually out here.

Watched the action on the big screen until about 25km to go before hot footing it back to a spot on a roundabout which was in between where the riders come through from the finish line to and the safety of their team buses. Once at the bus they typically warm down on rollers so it is the best time to catch them. You can't hear the commentary from that far back but the motorbikes are arriving and they have race radio on them so you know what is happening '5km to go' '3km to go' '2km to go' 'Mark Cavendish, Mark Cavendish' and seconds later the riders are coming through. Kittel who was runner up, gets to just in front and sits on the floor, shattered and is immediately surrounded by the press. What started off as orderly suddenly becomes messy and it becomes a crowd of riders, media, team officials and fans. The riders get back to their buses for a  warm down and do interviews. I'm not embarrassed to say that i ran from bus to bus just taking what photos I could and moving on. Ticked another thing off the list when I spoke to a pro, Irishman Dan Martin of Etixx QuickStep. I can confirm that it was hot enough for him (he got 40C on his bike computer) he did feel good and yes he was pleased that the flat stages are out the way...insightful questioning I think we can agree.

As with most experiences on this trip it was more than I hoped it would be...the access to the riders is incredible and I think as long as you don't get to close and give them respect it works well. A few people asked for bottles and on the whole they do oblige. Must remember to be more brazen in future.

On the walk back to the car, I got a chance to actually take a look at Montauban, it had the river and pretty bridges, lots of narrow winding streets so again, on a very short viewing, a nice place. I parked next to a stadium, after seeing the floodlights and thinking I might get a football ground photo but alas I forgot we are in proper French rugby country down here and it turned out to be the local rugby clubs, pretty impressive stadium.

Drive to my hotel was just 19 miles but appeared to invole the whole of the Tour trying to get through 4 peage booths (yes, I hit my head). Hotel is very nice, a converted mill on the water (with obligatory pretty bridge). Dinner was a rush as the whole of France wanted to watch the football and we now have real car horns blaring in the town to celebrate France's win.

So for one more day we continue heading South, the stage end tomorrow is approximately 15 miles from the border with Spain, though that border is just a sign. Oh and I promise that the flag spotting game can resume tomorrow after one day off.

Stat Zone
Miles covered so far - 1450
Times seen the peleton come past - 8 in 6 stages
Purchase of the day - forget the football shirt and FDJ cap,
It was the fresa (strawberry) cornetto for a euro
Delight at not seeing the caravan today - High
Cheese of the day - no specific one eaten
Brexit conversations - 0
Hotel based calamaties - 1. Women you won't understand, men, no hands, toilet seat falls down, let's leave it there.

A thank you
Just a quick thank you for all the nice comments about this blog. It does work very well for me as a diary of my trip but it's great and means a lot that people are enjoying it and sometimes even finding it funny :).