Le Tour de Alps

French Aps-Tour de France
July 20th-July 23rd

We woke the next morning barely in time for breakfast. I think the last few nights in New York were catching up with us. Our hostel provided a free breakfast which consisted of bread, coffee, juice and yogurt and did I say bread. We were quite shocked when we saw several of the guests taking 6 slices of bread each. Do they not know about the Atkins or Zone diet!!!

The night before we had purchased our bus tickets to Annecy (Ann Say) France so we had the morning to enjoy. However, instead of taking the 1:00 pm bus we found they had one at 11:00 am so we decided to head to the mountains early. What a gorgeous bus ride. It took about 2 hours through the greenest valleys and hillside towns. It was a fairytale. Feeling a bit cocky about maneuvering through the city, we exited our bus and thought it would be easy to make our connection to our hotel. Guess again, even fewer people spoke English in Annecy. In fact none of the staff at the bus station spoke it. We were not only trying to find our way to our hotel which was on the edge of town, but we needed to make arrangements for our trip to La Grand Bornand for the mountain stage of the tour. Thankfully a local French lady took pity on us and showed us where the local bus stop was and which one we needed to take to get to our hotel. She was a godsend. We still were in the unknown about La Grand Bornand other than what we picked up from the bus station attendant that only the morning bus was running tomorrow because of the Race but it was not going to return from La Grand Bornand. A bus from St Jean de Sixt was the only one running at night to get you back to Annecy and it was about 2 miles away from where the race was staged. No big deal except the last bus was at 6:15 pm and the race was going to finish around 5:30 pm or later. We planned this trip around the Tour so we were going to chance it knowing that if we missed the 6:15 pm bus we were hoofing it 18 miles back to Annecy or sleeping behind someone’s barn. Game On!

After grabbing a quick bit to eat and experiencing French bus station rest rooms (why do they not have seats?) we headed to our hotel. Having made our reservations last minute our hotel was on the outskirts of town and not much happening around it. In fact it was in an industrial area so our dining options were limited to non-existent. Also, the last bus to our hotel was 7:00 pm, therefore, if we stayed in town for dinner or activities, we had at least a mile walk to get home. We were hoping the hotel staff would speak more English to make sure we understood the train station attendant correctly regarding the bus schedule. No luck. With only a 50% comfort level of our arrangements and only one shot for making the Race, we decided to dine at the little restaurant at our hotel and turn in early. We were going to have to catch the 7:20 am bus back into Annecy in order to make the only bus to La Grand Bornand at 8:15 am. This putting us at the race 7 hours before the riders would come through town. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep that night just stressing about whether we had the correct information along with the tight schedule we were going to have to meet.

Morning came sooner than we thought. Although we set our alarms, there was really no need because the jack hammering started at sun-up. As we left our hotel room, we gave each other a kiss and said we loved one another just in case this little adventure turned into a fiasco and we said things we were going to regret. The local bus arrived on time-1st step accomplished. We arrived at 7:45 am at the bus station-bought ticket to La Grand Bornand and made bus. Step two accomplished. As we drove to La Grand Bornand we passed through several French towns through the Alps. Talk about picturesque. Everything you would expect and more. The gorgeous towering mountains all covered in flowers with the white chalets speckled throughout the hillsides. We were also taking note of how long of a walk we might have if we missed the last bus home. Before reaching La Grand Bornand we had to pass through St Jean de Sixt the town where we would have to catch this bus so we made a mental note of where it was and the route we would have to take. Once we arrived in La Grand Bornand we had a sigh of relief. We were there and going to see the Tour. We know had 7 hours to kill. Initially our thought was to trek it to the top so we could see them summit. We began the long climb upward and made it about half way (4 miles) when we ran into a couple of cyclists who were riding the route and they informed us that the riders would not be reaching the summit until about 4:00 pm. This was not going to work with our plan. We could not make it back to St Jean Sixt if we had to walk 10 miles and not start heading down until 4:00 pm. We had to bag it and settle for a spot along the route down in town. (in hindsight it turned out to be a better plan because we were hit by an unexpected rain storm and it poured for quite awhile. Sidenote-the guy we met riding up was from Texas and he went to Texas Tech. Small world.

We found a short cut back to town and grabbed a bite to eat and found a cool little café which was right on the race route and had a few beers where we could watch the approaching tour on TV. Having to score my friend Tami a t-shirt we braved it in the rain and found the souvenir wagon. Roby got one also. After 2:00 pm the rain stopped and the sun came out for a glorious afternoon and a perfect day for a bike ride. You would not believe how many cyclists come out for the tour and ride the route the morning before the racers. It is just a stream of bikes going by in all directions at all times. It definitely made us wish we had brought ours. A good goal to get in shape to be able to ride all the stages of the Tour. We will put it on our List. After a few hours and a few beers the parade of sponsor cars came through the town. They arrive an hour before the riders and toss out trinkets, cheap hats and some snacks from their vehicles. We went down and fought the hordes of people all grabbing for the items. We got several biker/painter style hats. Now we had lost our seats at the bar so we decided to head toward the finish because it was getting late and we knew we would be cutting it close to our bus departure. We found the perfect spot at the 2k mark right up front with a perfect view of the riders and no other people around us. At 5:30 pm the riders started coming through and we got some great photographs of Alberto Contador and the Schleck brothers along with many of the others who came through at the beginning. They whiz by so quickly it is difficult to identify them. In fact we did not even know it was Alberto in the front when we took the picture. It was not until later when we reviewed them. After about 5 minutes many of the racers had come through and we were cutting it down to the wire for our bus, we decided it was time to go. Thankfully we were close to the exit area and we decided to run. We figured we could do the 2 miles in about 20 minutes since we had to run uphill we needed to give ourselves a little more time. It was brutal but we made it to town with 10 minutes to spare. In retrospect we did not need to run because our bus was an hour late because it could not reach St Jean Sixt until all the traffic cleared the area. Step 3 accomplished. The only snafu turned out to be the last bus ride back to our hotel. Due to the tardiness of the St Jean Sixt bus we missed the last connection but it was only a mile walk. Our first stage of the Tour de France in the beautiful Alps was a success.

No rest for the weary. We were up and at it again the next morning. This time we did not have to be up until 8:00 am. The race was in Annecy so we could take the local bus into town which was only 5 minutes away. Lance Armstrong called this region of France one of if not the most beautiful places in the world and he is right. Annecy is called the flower city. Everywhere you turn flower baskets or flower landscapes are everywhere. Literally on every corner or along the canals in hanging baskets along the railings there are flowers. Amazing what a difference a little color makes. This does not even compare to the view of the Lake or surrounding mountains. We even took a break at the little beach next to the lake while waiting for the final racers for the time trial. Took off our shoes, tested the freezing cold water, and marveled over the tranquil view (the best part of the day). The Tour was set up a bit differently in Annecy and for the better. With the race going around the lake you could watch the start and then walk to the finish in enough time to see the same racer. We started the day at the start so we could get some close-ups of the riders before they even entered the oval and then we moved down the raceline to about the 1st quarter mile and then to a roundabout to catch a full-on view after they had gained some speed, then to the finish for Lance and Alberto Contador. All the team buses and the VS stage were in the park area and they allowed people to wander around and see the riders. We got near the Astana bus but no sign of Lance and it was extremely crowded. The announcers for VS were out and about on the open-air stage and they talked to the crowd for awhile. It was cool to hang out near their trailer because they had the race on a big screen TV and it was in English. You knew where all the Brits, Australians and Americans were hanging out!

Annecy our favorite place so far. Why the Tour has ignored it for 50 years is beyond me.