Symbolic View of Vincenzo Nibali

The photo below tells the whole story.  This is the view all the other riders have had of No. 41 Vincenzo Nibali throughout this Tour de France - just his backside!  (Notice the glimpse of his Yellow Jersey, and his number just above the rear wheel.)  Barring an accident, he will maintain his lead for one more day of climbing in the Pyrénées.  And then, there is no way he's going to lose 6 minutes or more to any of his rivals in the time trial on Saturday.  He might as well accept the invitation to dine with the Italian Prime Minister, and not keep him waiting until Sunday for an answer.

My First Time Seeing the Tour de France Live!

I have followed the Tour for years.  I've studied it, written about it, and even staged a family trip so the kids could climb the Tour's most famous mountains.  But I've never seen it live.  Until this week.  In January 2014, when my wife and I received our call to serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Mormons") in the France Lyon Mission, I checked the TDF website to see if the route might pass near where I would be serving.  At first, all I could learn was that it would pass somewhere near Lyon.  As time went on, the website added more and more details.  I knew that stage 12 would skirt Lyon on July 17.  On a Saturday in early May I drove out to Lentilly (20 Km from the mission office) to see the route and to scout out the best viewing spots.  That day Lentilly was like a ghost-town.  Not a person to be seen, and hardly any cars on the road.  The problem remained that, come July in the middle of the week our work in the office might prevent me from breaking away in the middle of the day.

My co-worker, Elder Herbert Clark, wanted to go too.  But the week before the big day, certain meetings were rescheduled to take place in the office on the 17th.  It looked like our plans were doomed.  Then we learned that some new missionaries were also arriving that day - additional demands on our time and attention.  The morning of the 17th, the office was bustling with people, the meetings were going on, we were fielding emergency phone calls, Elder Clark was in charge of food, we had a last-minute crisis in the preparation of the apartment for the new missionaries, I had to make a trip to the post office that took longer than expected, and we both figured we had missed our chance.  After lunch, the meetings resumed.  The new missionaries arrived.  We helped them move their bags to the new apartment.  Elder Clark gave them an orientation.  And then, like magic, the office got quiet.  At about 2:10 p.m. no one was clamoring for our attention.  We made an executive decision and bolted for the door.

Time to get the car, cross town, ride out into the country and find a parking spot.  Ha!  We parked 20 yards from the cross-roads that was blocked for the race and joined the crowds of people lining the lonely country road that had been so empty back in May.  We had missed the "Caravan," the parade of sponsor vehicles throwing out gifts and trinkets, but we were in place with about 30 minutes to spare to see the cyclists come racing through.  We made friends with some people in the crowd, including an Italian with a big flag who was there to cheer on his yellow-jersey hero Vincenzo Nibali.  Soon, the increasing flow of sponsor cars, police and others on motor bikes, and team cars signaled that the riders were getting close!  Then the helicopters overhead.  Then the crowd cheering in the distance.  Then finally . . .

The four riders in the breakaway zipped up the hill and though the round-about, and disappeared up the road, heading towards St. Etienne.  I had my camera on sport setting, so I was snapping off pictures as they flew by.  Three minutes later, the crescendo of crowd noise and more approaching helicopters announced the arrival of the peleton.  Same story:  They burst up the hill through the crowds lining both sides of the street, steamed through the round-about (mostly on the right, but some on left), and shot up the hill through the crowds and disappeared.  The circle of helicopters drifted up the sky to the south above the streaming line of the peleton.  And they were gone!

With a basketball or football game, you can arrive late and not miss a thing.  You watch the actual sporting event for an hour or two, and then you leave.  Sometimes you leave early because the outcome is already settled.  You had better not arrive late for a bike race!  The time stamps on my pictures from the first cyclist to the last are less than four minutes apart!

So, what about the race itself?  The three-week race is half over.  25 riders have abandoned (out of 200 who began).  Six of them were the leaders of their teams.  Big names: Sprint king Cavendish, fan favorite Andy Schleck, defending champion Froome, Top challenger Contador, Swiss sprinter Cancellara, American hopeful Talansky, and others.  Nibali has controlled the Yellow Jersey most of the race and increased his lead with his third stage victory on Friday.  But there are still opportunities for others to challenge him.  Peter Sagan, on the other hand, has a strangle-hold on the Green Jersey.  The other prize jerseys are still up for grabs.  There are still opportunities for stage-by-stage glory, even by lesser-known riders.  Each day will have its own drama.

Then, a week from Sunday (July 27) the Tour de France will end, and with it the cycling season for most of the world.  But for the cyclists themselves and the minority of fans who are "true believers," the season will continue with the Vuelta (Tour of Spain) and many more races all over the world.  Races continue nearly every week into the fall.  But sports fans generally, especially those in the United States, will not be watching.  They'll be watching high school and college football, the World Series, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, maybe some golf, maybe even bowling.  But not cycling.

In May, there is no hint of the commotion to invade this quiet spot when the Tour de France will arrive in July.

The course will overlook the city of Lyon, as it passes on its way to St. Etienne.

On race day for Stage 12, the fans are out in force just like this all along the 185 Km course from Bourg-en-Bresse to St. Etienne.

Langeveld, Clarke and Vachon are the first riders to appear.  Their breakaway will not survive.

As the peleton closes in on the breakaway, Team Astana rides as a group near the front to protect their Yellow Jersey leader Vincenzo Nibali (just barely visible in the middle of the pack of light blue kits).

American Chris Horner (114) and Dutchman Bauk Mollema (61) keep pace with the peleton.

German sprint champion Greipel rides safely in the middle of the peleton.

"Purito" Rodrigues wears the Polka-dot Jersey as the current King of the Mountains.  Can he keep it through the Alps and the Pyrénées?

At this point, French rider Sébastian Minard is bringing up the rear of the Peleton, but he actually passed more than 50 riders between here and the finish line in St. Etienne.  That should count for something, shouldn't it?

These are not buzzards, but the circling helicopters drifting south along the route towards St. Etienne.

Elder Clark and Elder Kennard with their new-found Italian Friend, preparing to cheer for his hero Yellow Jersey rider Vincenzo Nibali.

Driving Through the Drôme and Provence

The 2014 Tour is less than a month away.  The Dauphiné is taking place this week in the vicinity of Lyon.  But we needed to go to Nice.  Going down, we followed Route 75 from Grenoble through the foothills of the Alps, through the upper Drôme, stopping for the night at Lus la Croix Haute.  The map in the village square showed a "Boulodrome" just beyond the church.  I had to check it out.  Four of the locals were battling it out in the traditional "pétanque" style (as opposed to the "Lyonaise" style played near our apartment in Lyon).  Two completely different games!  The lady in red was called "The Golden Arm"  ("Bras d'Or") because of her prowess "au tir" (blasting the opponent's ball out of the way).  From 8 meters away, I watched her throw 8 out of 10 perfect strikes!  It was amazing!  The "tireur" (shooter) on the other team (man in grey) took some time getting warmed-up, but then he too made several amazing shots in a row to rescue his team from disaster.

Les amis du village jouent à la pétanque au boulodrôme.

La dame en rouge mérite bien le sobriquet "Bras d'Or!"  Elle n'a presque jamais manqué le tir.

Et Monsieur en gris n'est pas malin non plus.

Madame en blanc est pointeuse pour son équipe, mais, (hélas!) elle m'a appris pas mal de jurons au cours du jeu.

Monsieur "le Jardinier" a réussi à chaque reprise de planter sa boule au plein centre de son "jardin."  Avec Madame "Bras d'Or" son équipe a gagné presque tous les points.

Après le jeu, ils sont rentrés chez eux pour l'apéritif traditionel.

What is the connection to the Tour de France and biking?  Well, we were touring in France.  And, the next morning our trip was detoured for a bike race taking place along our planned route.

On Tuesday, as we headed back towards Lyon, we took a side trip to Gordes, a medieval village in Provence, where we saw this cyclist climbing up the steep incline to the top of the village.  Does that count?

 The next pictures will give you an idea of how steep the climb is.

View of Gordes from below.

View of Gordes from above - from the top of the neighboring hill.

2014 Tour - Stage 12 Advance Scouting Report

Today I found myself at a park west of Lyon, and decided to go another 5 Km west to scout out the route for this year's Stage 12 of the Tour de France.  The stage starts in Bourg-en-Bresse, and finishes in St. Etienne.  Along the way, it winds through the hilly country west of the Saône River from Villefranche to Lyon and follows Departmental Road 70 (D70) through the small town of Lentilly and beyond.  Here are some of the pictures I took today.  I hope to escape the office that day (July 17) and catch some pictures as the peleton sweeps through.





On this beautiful Saturday, six weeks before the Tour, there is no one on the street in Lentilly.  The Church and the square are quiet.  I don't think the Tour will leave D70 to make a quick loop up the hill and around the Church, but the TV helicopter will probably give the world an aerial shot.  You can tell your friends, you saw it first right here.





These sheep near the commune of Mercruy will have the best ring-side seat when the peleton sweeps through the round-a-bout at the junction of D70 and D7, and climbs into a series of tree-tunnels as the road heads south towards St. Etienne. No parking spots along this section of the course, so there should be a reduced number of crazies.




After about 2 Km of climbing turns through a canopy of trees, the racers will make a big sweeping right turn on the crest of this hill, where they will be able to see Lyon to their left.  Our apartment is near the base of the big round tower (the French call it the "Crayon") in the right-center of the picture.




Then the peleton comes into sight of the village of Larny.  The road makes a sharp left turn about 500 meters from this spot, and then climbs up through the narrow streets of the village, before heading south again though 73 more Km of similar hilly, rural country leading into St. Etienne.  For the pros, this will be considered a "flat" stage, but for a recreational rider like me, it would seem like 185 Km of all up-hill.