Le Tour de France

For the first time in history, the Tour de France kicked off in London this weekend (so called Le Grand Depart) www.tourdefrancelondon.com. Saturday was a short course and time trial for the racers to see who would wear the yellow jersey on Sunday's Stage 1. Saturday's course was about 5 miles around central London and past the main sites such as Westminister, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and finishing down the large Pall Mall. What was great about Saturday was that all 189 racers raced individually, and so you could see each one go by and it lasted about 4-5 hours, as it took them 9-10 minutes to race the course.

Brian and I decided although we had just been in London Thursday, it was a great chance for us to check out the Tour and the weather was finally sunny and nice. Also, it might be the only time the Tour de France starts or goes through London (or England for that matter) as each year, the Tour starts in different cities.

We attempted many times to take some good pics of the racers as they go by. But even though we have a nice camera, our digital isn't high level enough to catch them as they whiz by. Also, there were literally millions of people in Hyde Park and around the course, and it was nearly impossible to get up to the barriers to see the racers at a closer view. It was fine for us though, as it was fun to walk along 1/2 of the course and people watch and just soak up the Tour atmosphere. In the park area, there is a big fun area with tents of food, merchandise, contests, beer, etc. So we walked that a bit, but it was really crowded and getting to be too much. Within the park, and along the course, there were nine places where they put up big screens where you could watch the race sitting in the sun. Helicopters where flying above all over, and not for security as I first suspected. But rather they were for the media feed for TV. (Here's a Madam Tussad's wax figure of Lance!)

We're glad we went for the afternoon, and then had to stop at a pub or two for a couple of pints and some pub food. Luckily we found tables on Saturday night where millions of other people were trying to go too! Saturday's in London are really crazy and especially with special events happening. Also since Wimbledon was happening (obviously these guys had been there)! But it was worth it. We did have another long trip home though as our train was delayed and we didn't get home til about 1:30 a.m. again! Needless to say we were pretty tired today!