Le Tour - spectating

[jamiebae]

We are heading over to France for my wife's Birthday in July, which by some amazing coincidence is when Le Tour happens to be passing about 30 mins from our front door ( ). I've also managed to convince her that our 3 week old son would love to come and watch some cycling, so now I need to work out what to do.

The plan is to go and watch some of the individual TT from Mont St Michel to Avranches, probably nearer the Avranches end as it's closer to our house. We might also head down to Fougeres for the start the next day depending on the weather, and if it's worth seeing the start of a stage.

So, has anyone else been to spectate before? I understand you don't need a ticket, but I'm not sure about where to watch from, where to park etc, and is there anything else I need to know before going? I will take my bike and could cycle to Avranches easily, but that's a bit more tricky for the rest of the family so we will need to drive there.

Thanks!

[ewenm]

The roads will be closed for the race, so you need to work out a route to get you near somewhere to watch from before the roads close (could be a long day with an infant) or using alternative routes and then walk a little to get to the route. In general people just stand alongside the route and shout If you can find a village the route goes through then I'd expect a carnival atmosphere.

I'm hoping to see some of stages 18, 19 and 20.

[jamiebae]

Is there a detailed route map available anywhere?

All I can find it this one, which isn't much use for identifying which roads Le Tour covers!

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2013/us/overall-rout...

[ewenm]

Links here: http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#summary

Also in the Tour de France thread in the Sports forum.

[aspender]

I went to watch five stages last year, including a TT.

For the TT we chose a turn about 2km from the finish. It wasn't too crowded and you got to see something technical in terms of the riders braking, turning and accelerating. Don't watch on a straight as it is pretty boring. All the better if the corner you find has a shop/bar/restaurant.

However, spectating a TT isn't really the most fun way to watch the tour. The early riders go past at 1 minute intervals but then once you got into the top 50 (I think) it becomes two minutes. That's over four hours of watching rider after rider go by in a relative flash. Also, unless you are there right from the very beginning then you don't get to see the publicity caravan (not that your kid will be aware!)

A stage start is worth going to. The best stuff is cordoned off for guests but some of the main teams normally park their buses facing the public barriers (including Sky and Garmin when I went at Epernay last year) whilst others will hide away (Astana...) so you get to see the riders warm up, mill around doing interviews etc. You also get to see the caravan,

There's no fine detail information on the exact route for any stage - though the detailed town/village information on each individual stage page allows you to guess pretty accurately e.g

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2013/us/stage-12.htm...

[anonymous-user]

aspender said:

There's no fine detail information on the exact route for any stage - though the detailed town/village information on each individual stage page allows you to guess pretty accurately e.g

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2013/us/stage-12.htm...

There is, its just not on the ASO website!

All stage route maps are available through Ewen's link below.

[outnumbered]

I think the TT's are a good spectator event, at least if the weather's good. The more detailed route maps will be published some time in advance of the race, so you can work out exactly where the course will go. With a bit of planning you'll be able to find a good spot and not have to walk too far to the course.

Stage starts are also worth getting to see, as you can see the riders up close and there's always a nice atmosphere, but exactly how close you can get & what you can see depends on the setup on the day.