And so, after many months of planning, talking and planning some more, it was time to fill up the car with surely too much stuff and get on with it. Ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg (3 hours) was fine. I did wake up at one point so contorted in my chair that i was immediately in agony with neck ache. Some sort of internal early warning system would have been nice before I reached that level of pain. I did like the name Brittany Ferries had given to the wifi system on the boat....internet@sea, says what it does.
About a 60 mile drive to the B&B, arrived and turned on to a 100 yard drive way to what appeared to be a place way to nice to be booked through booking.com, I immediately reversed and checked my details and the website to avoid any embarrassment. I was greeted by Dean who is an Eastender by birth but spent 20 years practising law in New York State. Dean was immediately the nicest man I have ever met and I was immediately sad for him that I wasn't going to be the guest he always dreamed of. But he made me a cup of tea and he told me the crockery I could use and break, which he wouldn't care about. Not the porcelain stuff he uses for breakfast, he would care about that...err ok Dean.
Apologies to the cycling aficionados out there but the blog has to cater for all...so a bit of background as to why I and the Tour are in Normandie or the Manche department to be precise. The Tour typically has two types of starts (or departs) an overseas one to spread the word and the love or a French one. When in France, it typically is either an iconic location or a nod to something in history. This year we cover both with the start of stage 1 on Saturday at Le Mont St Michel (very iconic) and the finish at Utah Beach (the nod). The nod continues with the start of stage 2 in Saint Lo, which was significantly destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt after the war. As a precursor to those nods the team presentation took place this evening in Saint mere eglise. This was a very significant town on D-Day as it was strategic to moving troops off the beach and inland quickly. Paratroopers were dropped in to try and take the town. One of these paratroopers got stuck on the church spire in the town square and hung there pretending to be dead until the town was taken. The town has decided that the best way to commemorate this event is to have a parachute attached to the spire with a dummy hanging down in full paratrooper uniform forever....hmmm, got to be honest, I wasn't sure.
So in a town with a dummy hanging from the church and a town square surrounded by d-day or US Army themed eateries (oh yes) how else would you deliver 20 teams of professional cyclists to the stage in front of 20,000 people? Drive them up in vintage military vehicles of course, and that they did. As the photos below will show there was a mixture of awkward, bemused, grumpy and the relentlessly cool in the face of the slightly odd situation.
The presentation is just a nice chance to get some photos and get a feel for the whole thing before this enormous juggernaut starts to move on Saturday.
Tomorrow is one of only three days with no Tour until the Monday after Paris, where the race ends three weeks on Sunday. The rest days in Andorra and Switzerland being the other two . It's the calm before the storm so a bit of riding and hopefully tour rider spotting...I have to do something to have something to write about 😄.
Stat Zone - because everyone loves stats
Miles driven so far - 210
Miles cycled so far - 0
Countries visited - 2 (yes I'm having UK)
Cheese of the day - none, only had a cheese panini which doesn't count (US Army themed).
Conversations I didn't start with non-Brits about Brexit - 1
Conversations I didn't start with Brits about Brexit - 2 (one was Dean)
The photos will hopefully be up later but I'm having internet problems being in the middle of nowhere :)
No comments:
Post a Comment