Tour de France
 

Hello All.
I am ready for three weeks of late nights and early mornings watching my favourite sporting event of the year. I have purchased the fabulous magazine with the map, pen and paper handy to write down names of places that look interesting and beautiful. Although I do have our 2023 three month itinerary planned nothing is set in stone, and changes can easily be made. We are determined to travel to France next year.

I hope all the riders have a safe TdF and that we spectators where ever you are enjoy this fabulous race.

I’ll be on it, mostly for the scenery I’ll admit.

Joining in too for the ride!

Yay!! TDF 2022!! I'm really looking forward to this.

When does it start? I have a week off work this week, so late nights are OK. Looking forward to the race!

Lavandula

We are lining up as well. Did not watch the time trial last night because it started too late, but will be front row tonight. I cannot wait until it actually gets to France. I love when it passes through areas we have been as well as seeing new places for inspiration. We recently watched the Criterium du Dauphine which gave us an entree. Now time for the main course.
We are tentatively hoping to return next year for ten weeks so this really gives us inspiration and motivation, not that we really need any of that!! We need to go before we get too much older.
Hoping for an exciting but safe race for the riders and that Covid does not strike the teams.

lavandula it is on at night here in Australia. On at 830 here on sbs and finishes about 1.00 am.

rhon Hope all is well with you. I’m looking forward to seeing Copenhagen. I’m a white noir fan books and tv series and we often joke about not visiting because there are so many serial killers. 🤣
Im especially looking forward to the early stages as we haven’t been to that part of France.

I will be watching with bells on!

Lavandula

hi Cheska. Yes the north of France is not familiar for us but do not think it will be on the plan for next year. We are also scandi series fans. Thank goodness for SBS.

At least we are thinking about returning even though Covid is still a big concern. We have avoided it so far but it seems every where.

Happy planning.

I am recording and watching as well. I love these few weeks!

<<rhon Hope all is well with you. I’m looking forward to seeing Copenhagen. I’m a white noir fan books and tv series and we often joke about not visiting because there are so many serial killers. 🤣
Im especially looking forward to the early stages as we haven’t been to that part of France.>>

Don't be too complacent about the north of France either, Cheska - there was a very good detective series - in fact two series - set there a few years ago called [in english] "Witnesses" about bodies of murder victims being exhumed and placed in the show homes of a housing development. Highly recommended, though the weather portrayed is hardly likely to encourage tourism.

You definitely should visit Northern France. The coast west of Calais is lovely. Inland is good too. The TofF is going inland from Dunkerque before going round to Calais.
The Lille leg will be nice, as will the Belgian leg. From there on it is in pretty standard TofF country.

The weather is too nice for me to sit in and watch it live and I am not recording it all.

Back in the Lance Armstrong days, I watched it all, usually via delayed recording DVR. Since they got rid of doping and connected the riders to their coaches by radio with metabolic monitoring, the best riders are about the same. The Tour has become boring: Time trials are boring if there are no rain-induced crashes. The flat stages are boring since they all have a breakaway that is eventually caught then a sprint for the finish. The mountain stages canbe interesting. This year I am only watching the 1-2 hour summary shows.

Great start so far. Just a few slight crashes that hydroplaned but nothing too severe. It's wonderful seeing Copenhagen again and the crowds are out!

I got bored with the Tour when it was so obvious that Lance Armstrong was doped to the gills. (And most of the rest of the world accused France of having sour grapes for believing that.) However, I too believe that it was not a good move to put radios in everybody's ears.

It is still a fanstastic spectacle.

I'll be very happy to see the Tour go through northern France which is my favorite part of the country. They will be passing within about 20 kilometers of my ancestral area.

I think for many the bike race is a bit of a sideshow. It is the scenery they watch it for.

It is one of the few races my son doesn't work on, the French keeping it all strictly in house. It is interesting to watch a stage with him and hear his technical comments on the TV coverage and the cycling.

It's due to rain at the end of the week so I may watch some of it then. Too busy with other things and the nice weather to watch it now.

years ago, I was in Paris when the Tour arrived in the city..
I was waiting on the right bank to see the participants.
They just zoomed by in a blink of an eye, but I still remember the wave of excitement in the crowed.

We usually watch some of the stages.

I think the TdF is all of the things that others have mentioned. I love the scenery and the race itself.
Great to see all the well behaved crowds.

Our trip does include northern France next year. While I have settled on Brittany, it is Normandie that is giving me the headache. I don’t think we can escape from moving around every few days if we want to see the places of interest for us. That is not our ideal way to travel as we detest packing up.
will continue to do the research and will come up with something that keeps both of us happy.

<<It is one of the few races my son doesn't work on, the French keeping it all strictly in house. It is interesting to watch a stage with him and hear his technical comments on the TV coverage and the cycling.>>

That sounds very interesting, Hets, what job does he do?

Danon, when the Tour of Britain came through Cornwall last year we duly traipsed down to our local town and found what we hoped would be a good place to watch. Obviously we wanted as good a view as possible, so we chose the end of a long straight uphill section, which worked pretty well. Even though they came past at quite a lick it was possible to pick out certain riders and DD was very pleased with the photo she got of Julian Alaphilipe. It was fun too to watch people coming out of their houses with their kitchen chairs to sit on in their gardens or outside on the pavement.

​​​​​​​I haven't managed to catch any of it yet because of the tennis and cricket but I will be trying to remember to record the highlights tonight.