Saturday, July 24, 2004
Saturday, July 24 - STAGE 19: Besancon
RIDE PROFILE: Dole to Besancon for the Tour de France Time Trial. Shuttle back to hotel. Ride 69.7 or 74.5km. Rolling.
THE DAY:
Today was our final day of the trip and the last stage before Paris. The ride to Besancon was fairly uneventful. The terrain was a mix of flats and short rolling hills with one lovely descent through a forest on the outskirts of Besancon. The weather for the day was cloudy and rainy but we were watching the Tour so what was a little rain?
Time Trials are not very exciting as spectator races, in my opinion. Jim and I chose to hang out at the finish line with the hopes of spying a celeb or two. We did get to see Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin in the media booth and took pictures but alas we never did find Bob Roll and the OLN travelling desk. We walked up and down the 500m of the finish and bought some souvenirs, ate some French fries and watched the riders coming in. The crowds were full of enthusiasm for every rider as they came down the finish. People would bang on the barrier, it was definitely noisy and I could imagine how that sound combined with the cheering would push anybody to give every last ounce of energy he had.
At one point, we settled down on a jersey barrier (cement slab - mini wall) to watch some riders. As I slid down off the barrier, I rip my bike shorts. Just a small hole, enough to moon folks on the ride back to the bus. We stayed to watch Lance start his time trial on the giant jumbo screen but were unable to stay to see him cross the line because we had to meet a bus about 10K outside of Besancon for the trip back to the hotel.
The day ended with a ride to the bus (to avoid Tour traffic),where our trusty rental bikes were removed of our pedals and saddles and packed away, there jobs complete. We took the bus back to the hotel for a final night's celebration and dinner.
THE DAY:
Today was our final day of the trip and the last stage before Paris. The ride to Besancon was fairly uneventful. The terrain was a mix of flats and short rolling hills with one lovely descent through a forest on the outskirts of Besancon. The weather for the day was cloudy and rainy but we were watching the Tour so what was a little rain?
Time Trials are not very exciting as spectator races, in my opinion. Jim and I chose to hang out at the finish line with the hopes of spying a celeb or two. We did get to see Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin in the media booth and took pictures but alas we never did find Bob Roll and the OLN travelling desk. We walked up and down the 500m of the finish and bought some souvenirs, ate some French fries and watched the riders coming in. The crowds were full of enthusiasm for every rider as they came down the finish. People would bang on the barrier, it was definitely noisy and I could imagine how that sound combined with the cheering would push anybody to give every last ounce of energy he had.
At one point, we settled down on a jersey barrier (cement slab - mini wall) to watch some riders. As I slid down off the barrier, I rip my bike shorts. Just a small hole, enough to moon folks on the ride back to the bus. We stayed to watch Lance start his time trial on the giant jumbo screen but were unable to stay to see him cross the line because we had to meet a bus about 10K outside of Besancon for the trip back to the hotel.
The day ended with a ride to the bus (to avoid Tour traffic),where our trusty rental bikes were removed of our pedals and saddles and packed away, there jobs complete. We took the bus back to the hotel for a final night's celebration and dinner.
# posted by Holly : 12:46 PM
