Tour de France, Stage 7

This morning was a lot more beautiful than yesterday. The air was clear, with a low cloud ceiling, providing for a good morning to see a bike race. There wasnt any rush to get there early today, based on the experience of seeing the Tour of California leave from San Jose, we could get there only an hour or two early and still not miss anything. If we wanted the prized starting-line photo, we would have to stand in one spot, but I wanted to try to see the riders before the race.

We went on the hunt for where the teams would set up their big vans and lay out the bikes for the papparazzi, and found the big empty parking area. That was about 9:30, with the caravan scheduled to leave at 10:00 and the riders scheduled to leave at 11:00, I suggested we look for the coolest cappucino-serving café and hoped to collect a signature or two. So left we went out of the parking area.

We looped back onto the course and saw the caravan leaving, and by the time we got to the parking area, the first of the teams was arriving. Yes Alia, they came from the right side. You win.

The big attraction was when the main show rolled in, the Astana bus. I didn't feel like pushing the crowds and standing seven deep, but did get this:



After that, circled around to see all of the mechanics prepping the bikes for the race. It was too crowded at the start line to really see all of the riders signing in, and with our patience spend from yesterday, we headed about 500m down the road from the starting line to see it all roll out of town.

View of the corral and back side of the start:


Front of the peloton, you can see Cavendish and a bit of Cancellara:


Fabian Cancellara, in yellow: