Has anyone been to the tour de france?

I want to go for the weekend in Paris and watch the last leg of the tour.

Info i need to know is,

Best way to get there, (don't mind driving), where to stay, time needed to be up on Sun am (to get a decent view), and is it worth the hassle?

I have a trade off with other half, 1 weekend in Barcelona for Footy, 1 weekend in Paris for the tour!

That's my hols this year!

I'll be there as well this year!!seen it a couple of times in the past few years.
I was on the Alpe du Heuze,for last years time trial,any way thomsonfly are going from Doncaster Airport,flight takes about an hour,im flying out on the thursday but they do fly daily i think.
Then best bet is some form of cheap hotel,or like me i'm staying in a youth hostel in the centre of Paris.best bet is to check out thomsonfly's website..

see you there
john t

By the way you asked if it's worth it?
I think so and it could be Lance's final tour(and hopefully his 7th win).The shear scale of the tour has to be seen to be believed, and by the way you'll need an early seat,when i was in the pyrenees in 2001,some people had there chairs and stuff set up by 9:30am,and the tour didnt come past till 3pm.The french love their tour.

john t

I've never had the opportunity to watch it live, in France. It must be an amazing experience.

I would have loved to have been at the summit of one of the big climbs when Pantani (my personal favourite rider ever) and Armstrong were doing battle :)

Enjoy your weekend Harley :thumbsup:

I go to paris for the weekend every year to watch the final day, ive sent you a Pm with all the info you need, the sunday can be a bit of a hectic day but its well worth it.


http://img218.exs.cx/img218/4243/lance8ay.jpg

Im sure you know who the guy in yellow is

Thanks

Got your PM - hopefully we should be there!

Last big race we saw live was the Rochester Classic!

Hi, could tell me when the final day of the tour de France is? thanks

Sunday 24th July

Hello,
Paris is crazy on tour de France day, it's so busy, hot and you cant get near the road and those guys move so fast. It's a superb day out but I would advise a mountain stage any day. For the right price you really need to fly from Heathrow, but Paris accomodation is quite reasonable and you can walk to most places easily. Check out ebookers.com or lastminute.

Just thought i'd bump this up again..
Tour starts in a couple of weeks..can't wait,and its it on eurosport every day,with a high lights programme on at night.
Those moutain stages look pretty tough this year.Still have my money on Lance doing it again,especially as this is his last race ever as a profession athlete..

jt

I wish it was still on terrestrial :(

And just think.....You could be watching Le Tour while training on the road bike i have for sale with the free shoes and rollers thrown in for good measure :wink:
Look here.......http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40981&highlight=massi+master

Back on topic though. I'm not so sure Lance will do it this year.
He's struggling at the minute. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong! :)

Wouldnt quite say LA was struggling he's just had a 4th overall on GC 59 seconds behind at the recent Dauphine Libere, which he was still useing as a training session. Im sure LA knows what he is doing andis looking to peek for the first 3 weeks in July.

As for this years TDF route looks a little dull to me only 3 real mountain top finishes and too many boring flat stages. Stage 11 would have been awesome they take in the Madeleine, Telegraphe & Galibier, But once you get t the summit of the Galibier its all down hill to Briancon, a mountain top finsh to somewhere like Les Duex Alps would have been better. I know the TDF over the past few years has only had 3 real mountain finishes, but i would have loved a Mont Vountoux finish.

I guess its a lets not let LA win by over 6 minutes and take a hat full of stage wins sort of race.

LA will win stage 15 Sunday 17th July, as it passes over the Col du Portet d'Aspet and its 10yrs since his old Motorola team mate Fabio Casartelli died on the decent.

Only three mountain finishes on the tour! :(
The mountain stages are the best part of the tour for me. In fact i would probably never have started cycling if i hadn't seen the legend that was Pantani.

I remember watching the tour for the first time. It happened to be a huge mountain stage and the peloton were virtually all bunched together. The commentators were going crazy talking about some 'pirate' who was going to make his move?

Then i noticed the little bald guy with big ears near the front. Suddenly he was gone! I looked for the motor that 'must' have been attached to the frame somewhere :o Other riders tried to stay with him but they all had the same fate.
Pantani annihilated them. He finished something like 13 mins in front of everyone else and i was hooked.

When Pantani left us the tour lost some of it's hold on me. LA has done a good job of keeping the sport alive for me. This is LA last tour.
Why deny him (and us) the finish that we all like to see?

Watching a full peloton riding along a flat stage, day in day out, only for the sprinters (who have been invisible at this point) pop up and create 30 seconds of excitement, is not what i personally like to see. The sprinters pull out at the first big climb anyway :?

Give me the mountain stages over the flat stages any day.

Dear robS35

Would it be possble for you to send me details of your reccomendations for viewing the last day of the tour.

Many thanks


I go to paris for the weekend every year to watch the final day, ive sent you a Pm with all the info you need, the sunday can be a bit of a hectic day but its well worth it.


Im sure you know who the guy in yellow is

I'll be there,we should all wear sheff forum t-shirts so we know who we are..ok,i'll shut up now.

jt