First, I went to watch the Tour passing by about 500 m from my house. My biggest impression was how
tired Lance looked. It made me wonder whether all this physical stress can affect the return of his
cancer. In any case, I already believe that this possibility is a big motivating factor for him.
However, that was nothing compared to Leiseka, who is has the most remarkable resemblance to
Nosferatu that I've ever seen. He was consistently riding about 5 meters off the back as is he was
so tired that any closer might mean having to concentrate in order not to crash.
After the end of the stage, I went to see Place de la Concorde. I was on my roller skates, and I was
able to ride through the tunnel which is on the course. The slope in and out of that tunnel is
pretty steep and must be at least 7%, though short enough that you don't feel it at 50 kph, but I
was going signifcantly slower.
I saw the riders up close getting ready for the Centenary parade. Physically, the most impressive
was Philippe Gaumont, who has really big legs, as opposed to the rest of the riders. He also has a
vague resemblence to Cipollini. Ullrich was in a good mood, nothing at all like Fignon in 89.
The parade was fairly interesting, with floats driven by bicycles, which were mountain bikes which
had been attached to big metal floats, but only the rear wheels touching the ground. It's not clear
where the steering was, and one of these was headed straight for a bunch of photographers at the
finish and one of the coordinators had to dismount from his bicycle and pull it to a halt. They had
big banners like the front page of L'Auto in 1903 about the Tour start in Mongeron. There were
people dressed up in period clothes on roller skates, though the latter were mostly of the post 2000
variety. I conjecture that the skates were used in order to maintain a faster parade speed,
consistent with the many bicycles in the parade.
The parade was then split up into periods, like the 20's etc, some of which might appear strange if
you've never lived in France, since the 80's was consistently represented by Aerobics, since this
"fitness period" was introduced to the French by a TV show "Veronique et Davina", such exercise
being unknown previously (the show was also famous for ending with them in the showers, which helped
boost ratings, no doubt).
In order to represent the inclement conditions of the Tour, there was a tractor producing fig, and a
maching for rain, with 1920's style riders right behind.
Then there was the parade of tour victors, one bicycle with a banner of the victor for each year.
When available, the actual winner was present. Most of the winners were actually there, the oldest
being Ferdi Kubler, but the biggest missing name was Lemond, who didn't show up for any of the
ceremonies, which is a shame.
It was interesting to see Merckx, since it was the first time I've ever seen him look genuinely
happy. Indurain got the biggest acclaim from the crowd. To my surprise, I later heard him speaking
French on TV during this parade which seems to be a first as well. By the way, Tyler Hamilton
refused to speak French on camera, though I seem to recall that he had lived in Nice for a while.
As usual when following a Tour stage live, the guy standing behind me wanted to see Virenque. He was
a real black African, and I told him that Virenque was African. He said: "Yes, I know, he was born
in Casablanca", which truly shows a difference between French and American perceptions of "African
Americans."
Returning by the Hotel Crillon, the racers were slowly riding their way through the crowd and people
could talk to them up close and personal. In fact, it was fairly similar to any amateur race. I saw
that one of the CSC riders had Speedplay pedals (the "real" ones, not the new zero model), so
they've made it through at least one Tour de France, though I'm not sure since when.
I rode up the rue the Ponthieu where the tour vehicles were making their way back to their hotels.
One woman in an tour organisation vehicle was dialing a number when a policeman told her: "OK, the
Tour de France is over, so you'll have to put that away, and please buckle your seatbelt." I
congratulated him, and went home.
-ilan