Sunday, July 26, 2009

Men in tight clothes!


I never really paid much attention to Le Tour de France before. It just seemed like some bike race around vineyards and frankly I don't like riding bikes. This year since I would have the opportunity to see the live finish of this well respected athletic event I thought I would try to get into it. The race began on July 4th in Monaco and ended today, on July 26th in Paris. Le Tour took its bikers through every imaginable kind of terrain and though many of the countries bordering France. Their website had a great little video of the routes for all the stages and frankly if you were like me and didn't have all that much interest in a little bike race- just watching that video of the routes will command your respect.


This afternoon we went down to a point near our apartment to see the race go by. We waited for about 45 minutes until we saw the preamble to the bikers which included the following silly marketing theatrics.




















It seemed that some of the costumes on these tiny euro cars might actually tip them backwards. But none of them did.






































Team Busses




















Here they come!


















.....and there they go!












Clicking as fast as I could on my camera they were by us in a flash. All at once in a huge group. It was crazy!














We walked home over Pont Sully and watched the live finish on TV with some wine and cheese. I couldn't bear fighting the crowds at the Place de la Concorde and likely not be able to see over those "in the know" French who bring ladders to such events. Le quatorze Juillet has scarred me!




2 comments:

Gabi said...

oh, Mon ami, we miss you too!!! We are in VA right now, but I will most definitely be showing this to John asap :)

Shannon said...

that bike race totally awesome! right buddy?



yeah! I loved that race too!