@davechiu

notes from the road, 2013 Tour de France

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Final Corner

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Stage 21: Versailles to Paris

What a crazy trip. In some ways, it's like the end of Summer Camp, you don't want to leave but at the same time, you're wicked excited to go home. It's a roller coaster of emotion, exhaustion, and excitement. You're trying to get something done and sometimes it feels like the world (or maybe just the ASO or France) is conspiring against you... but other times you get the shot(s) and absolutely nail it. Sometimes your equipment (cars, computers, cameras) fail, and sometimes they come back to life. But in the end it's like that euphoric dopamine rush at the end that wipes away any of that negative stuff and leaves you in amazement at what just happened over the past 25 days. We drove over 4000km across (mostly South-Eastern) France including Corsica got to see some of the most beautiful and diverse scenery Gaul has to offer all while photographing the 100th edition of the largest annual professional sporting event in the world.

I thought this was the accredited photo-zone, what are these iPads doing here?

The final laps in Paris play out a lot like a Criterium back home (with longer laps), really exciting to watch in person, the best view is indeed on TV, but you don't get quite the same feeling as the racers come screaming by.

Anyway, 2013 Tour de France is in the books; so long, and thanks for all the poissons.

Might do one or two more posts about equipment, lessons learned, logics, village depart, et cetera.

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Spent

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Stage 20: Annecy to Annecy-Semonz

Last day in the Alps, and one more day until Paris... unreal.

I've been saving up photos (hopefully I have enough) for a look at the Village Depart; what's amazing to me is that at an event that I can basically wander around anonymously and in the Village Depart where every morning you have several hundreds of invitees puttering about inhaling all the free food this girl at the Senseo tent remembered me by sight and my coffee preference every day (there are about 5 different types, the only other guy working the tent really would just give me whatever was in front of him), I'm impressed.

The finish at the top of Semonz was even tighter than usual. I got out of the cattle drive eventually, but a further back didn't offer up much more room.

Semonz is a ski area in the Winter, not unlike other Alpine finishes we've had. In the summer though, this is probably the first ski area I've seen with cattle free roaming the hills.

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Col de la Madeleine

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Stage 19: Bourg-d'Oisans to Le Grand-Bornand

I think everyone was on a collective hang-over from Alpe d'Huez, there were still camper vans leaving the mountain this morning... crowds on Col de la Madeleine were sparser and much tamer.

Overnight KOM leader, Christophe Riblon, after winning on l'Alpe d'Huez was certainly not as sprightly as the day before.

Incase you were wondering how close those TV helicopters actually fly: close.

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Stage 18: Gap to Alpe d'Huez

I take back all (most) of my previous opinion that sitting around for hours (days) on end waiting for the race to come by in a matter of minutes was not something I wanted to do.

Totally worth it on l'Alpe d'Huez.

Absolutely amazing experience.

Oh yeah, there was a bike race too.

Big thanks to Ben driving the Rapha Cycle Club bus (saw them in Nice, Mont Ventoux, and here on l'Alpe) best coffee I've had in months (nay, I got to have pour-over and aeropress in Girona; okay, best coffee outside of a private home)... the best espresso in all of France was certainly in the back of this truck.

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Stage 17: Embrun to Chorges

Time Trials are exhausting, sure it's a shorter day for the rider, but longer for the rest of us. Instead of photos of clumps of riders together (often all the riders in a single clump) we are presented each racer one at a time.

You've got to keep moving around so that you don't take the same shots time and time again of the riders, because 200 shots of the exact same thing is never a good time.

The rain held off (mostly) until after the finish, torrential downpours an hour after Froome finished... would have made for an interesting race, driving in it was hard enough, I can't imagine racing in that.

The lake the race took place along was pretty spectacular.

Lac de Serre-Ponçon, has also been added to the list of places to come back to, as well as the entire region it sits in.

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Stay cool.

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Stage 16: Vaison-La-Romaine to Gap

Sometimes the race for second place is more interesting. When you finish your victory celebrating before you even cross the line and in the shade we get...

I got a Euro haircut today, complete with a shampoo, scalp massage, and too much hair gel... but my hair still doesn't look as good as this guy's

Otherwise it was a pretty straight forward semi-transitional stage, TT tomorrow and then... l'Alpe d'Huez, which will be full on cray.

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Mont Ventoux

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Stage 15: Givors to Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux is amazing, 30°C at the base, about 16°C at the top. The white stone that makes up the mountain above the tree line makes for an amazing and unique landscape.

Honestly, I kinda thought Froome was going to crack and someone else was going to shine... I guess Froome had other ideas.

One week to go and a lot of people are saying it's already in the bag... I dunno, there are a lot of Alps left.

The descent down the backside of Mont Ventoux is amazing, might be better than the side they raced up.

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Stage 14: Saint-Pourçain-Sur-Sioule to Lyon

Back to the Circus. Girona was a nice break, got to hang out with some great people, eat good food, and generally recover from the first week of the Tour.

The tour rolls on, it's as if I never left.

In Lyon I was fortunate enough to stay very close to the center of the city... and I got to benefit from the bike share service to get around the city a bit.

Which is awesome, suddenly I go from wanting to go no more than a mile away to having almost the entire city accessible to me.

Found some French breakdancers.

Definitely my favorite photo on the day, not even cycling related.