tdf in NIMES

Today was pretty cool -
We got up about 8 - most of the jet-lag gone - or at least it seemed like it. Went downstairs and built our bikes up and then went to breakfast about 8:45 or so. Breakfast
was great if you can get by on a miniscule amount of food. These french people have been awesome - really friendly, but they don't eat or drink like we do. Tiny cups for
everything.
Anyway - we hung out in garden for a while - about 70 degrees and sunny then got ready to go se Le Tour.
Dave was trying to deal with an asthma flare up so he decided to stay home and rest to keep from jeopardizing the rest of the trip. Tough to leave him behind. Steve and
I got underway and rolled out. After about 60 miles and 2 wrong turns we ended up in Nimes, found a parking place and got our bikes out of the van. Driving DEFINITELY
takes two people as the turns come fast and when you are doing multiple loops of a roundabout you need to watch the road pretty close
It didn't take long to find the tour finish area in Nimes - lots of people, music, barriers, busses, jumbotron screen, etc. Lots of energy. We took a while exploring it
because the racers weren't due for 4 or 5 hours (it was about noon at the time). Finally we rolled out going backwards on the tour route. Steve and I had the road completely
to ourselves. The gendarme had closed all the roads, but allowed us to pass. All along the way people were chearing and clapping and telling us we were going the wrong
way. While pulling out of Nimes someone called out 'Plano' real loud and we went back to visit. It was some guy who was from the Dallas area and had actually read about
Steve on some local Dallas cycling website. Probably a complaint, but that didn't keep Steve from talking about his world famousness for about 20 K.
At 25K the gendarme stopped us from going further and we couldn't find any way around them so we poked around a bit and landid on a spot that was in the shade and
gave us a pretty long view of the approach so that they wouldn't just go by in a blur. We settled in with two French families that were really nice. One offered us Coca cola and
the other offered us water and their chairs! We had a good conversation with one family - Grandparents with grandkids. They were on vacation. The kids practiced english
and I practiced mangled french. Steve moslty went with sign language.
After a LONG wait the caravan started to come. Possibly the most unsafe event I have ever witnessed. It would have been better to give all the 5 year olds knives and
blindfolds and tell them to run crazy up and down the road. People are lined up on blind corners and the cars and floats and trucks come flying down the road at about 50.
The people on the floats are mostly teathered in, but it wouldn't take much to have an amazing wreck. Picture a Macy's float going 50 with people on it throwing trinkets at
you. One keychain in a plastic bag hit my leg and nearly put a hole through my calf. I was able to save the keychain and bring it home, but it left a scar.
As soon as the peloton and the team cars passed Steve and I said goodbye to our new friends and started riding back. Once again the roads were closed and we flew by the
cars. We stopped at a small snack stand with at TV and watched the last 1K of the race on TV. Kinda cool to see the roads we had just ridden on.
Back in town we sped around some of the roundabouts - just to see what it was like. The finish area was still full of people when we arrived so we road around a bit more
and then went back the our van (which is sponsored by Chipotle) and took off for home - arriving about 8:45 to a starving David. We promptly headed out for some Pizza we
happily have some left over.
Ready to sleep now - tomorrow we have about 60 miles of riding and doubtless some long waits for the peloton.
Bon soir