Tuesday 5 July 2016

Stage Four - Back on the boards

A 202 mile drive this morning feels like we have definitely moved on. The sun is out and it is hot, the proper holiday hot and we're not in the South of France yet. On first view the city is the sort of city you visit on holiday, light sandy colour buildings and that look of being constantly bleached by the sun.

A very long stage today, meant an early start for the race from Saumur. I can tell you nothing about the place other than it is 30 miles from Angers (apologies for not just typing out a couple of lines from the Rough Guide as I did with the Granville fact yesterday). The stage is listed as another of those flat, transitional stages but on first site of the final km, I think the rise is sufficient to effect the pure sprinters today and could be a Sagan day (Wrong as it turned out).

The drive down to Limoges was a journey of two halves. The motorway half and the lovely French countryside half. The motorway half did bring out the first of the issues with driving around France on your own in a British car. The mere word 'peage' (toll) strikes fear and not because of the €11 euro charge for driving 30 miles (especially when compared to paying €3.50 for 15 hours in a city centre car park) but because of the process.
Step 1 - see 'peage' sign - grumble and shift uncomfortably.
Step 2 - approach booths and change mind which to go in.
Step 3 - drive up as close as possible on the passenger side
Step 4 - panic
Step 5 - put down window but every third time inadvertently pull in the mirrors
Step 6 - unbuckle, handbreak, neutral
Step 7 - heave across to passenger seat
Step 8 - stretch across the remaining cavern
Step 9 - either take ticket or insert ticket and credit card.
Step 10 - 'code bon' sigh of relief
Step 11 - get ticket or card back in the car. This ends the horror of the dropping anything out of the car stage.
Step 12 - throw myself back across to the driver seat with a 50% likelihood of head butting the mirror 
Step 13 - glance up and see the barrier is up - increase panic by 20%
Step 14 - seatbelt, handbrake, gear and pull away like an F1 driver
Step 15 - swear under breath
Step 16 - a mile up the road, remember to close the passenger window.

After leaving the motorway the route was lovely through the French countryside and small towns. I didn't go direct to Limoges. I took a small detour to Oradour-sur-glane what should have been a fairly uninteresting, but pretty French village. However (and if there is ever a time when However isn't sufficient this is it) on 10 June 1944, 200 Nazi soldiers marched into the village at 2pm. All adults were forced into the town square, joined by the children from school. They were split into the men and women and children. By 5pm, 642 people of the village had been murdered. A few villagers were not there that day but some from other villages were caught up in it. One woman, managed to escape from the burning church which was also covered by machine guns to stop anyone getting out. The Nazis set fire to the village but a large part of it remained. The current town was rebuilt a few hundred yards away but the old village still stands as it did when first found after the atrocity. Cars left where they were and the layout as it was. It is now, a guess a museum but more just one big monument and a very humbling experience. Glad I went.

The rest of the drive to Limonges was a dream. The countdown of miles to go, hoping not to hit 'route baree' went down almost to zero but even when I did hit it there was a car park and all was great. 

I managed to get a good spot on the barrier at the 350 metre spot and gently cooked in the sun. Had
the worst examples yet of publicity caravan bullying as a woman stood slightly behind everyone and hoovered up whatever she could, putting larger items inside her trousers, not pockets but in her trousers and then a couple of things were popped in her bra. I didn't care for her much and tried to swat the odd thing away from her with the flag.

Eventually the race arrived, very close to the end of the caravan and the impromptu traffic jam when they couldn't clear all of the race vehicles off the road.  Only very important vehicles are allowed on the route, officials, teams, Police, media...the rest of the 2000 or so vehicles use the 'hors course'. This is the prescribed route to enable anyone who needs to go the finish straight away to do so. You will also find all the bigger team buses and lorries on the hors course. For no-marks like me it's also very useful apart from the end but you can be pretty sure you will get close.

In my hotel for tonight which is full of some of the Tour's catering crew but still I had a salad from the Intermarche for dinner. A nice point to add as I left the car park earlier. Did the above ticket shenagiahans with my pre-paid ticket. Message comes up saying not paid (I had), get out of the car and run round and the ticket pops out and the barrier is up, so I had to run back round the car and rush my way out.

I know many of you are wondering how good my French is as I make my way round France...let me give you a taste, this is a conversation between a woman (w) in Angers last night and me (me). She stops me on the street
W- excuse moi Monsieur (this is clearly wrong but you get the gist)
M - Parlez vous
W - bus? (Pointing)
M - no, sorry (shrugging)
W - no, bye.

Stat zone
Miles covered so far - 1040
Cheese of the day - Pont L'Eveque AOP...amazing but very strong aroma which has made the car smell of it.
Tat of the day - none, very quiet on that front
Days since pizza - 1
Times the peleton has gone past me - 6.

Photo time



 A car left exactly where it was in Oradur-sur-Glane
A Katusha rider leads out the sprint

No idea what this Direct Energie rider is doing into the final 350m of the stage

Cav sprints to 8th on the day and drops to second in the green jersey competiton

Andre Greipel, nicknamed the gorilla, looks a lot smaller than he does on a bike.

Jasper Stuyven looks very happy after retaining his polka dot jersey.

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