Advice on watching the Tour De France at the roadside?

mckechan, December 28, 2012

Hi,

My friends and I plan to watch the Tour De France at the roadside next year. We're targeting the weekend of the 6/7 July and would like to be near the top of the climbs near the end for both stages.

I know that a lot of people actually camp on the roadside overnight to get a good spot. Is this the only way? Have any of you done this before? Would it be worthwhile taking our bikes?

Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

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Road.cc bike forum

We're hoping to head over for the Alpe D'Huez stage, I'm looking into campsites now but I fear I may have left it too late and will probably end up just throwing a tent on any available piece of land.

posted by farrell [202 posts] 28th December 2012 - 12:02

I went a few years ago for a couple of weeks and we only used a campsite once. On the climbs we just found anywhere for our tent, on the 6th there is loads of space on top of the climb up to Ax 3 Domaines at the bottom of the ski slopes, and lots of restaurants, bars etc. so you can just camp at the top. Not sure what climbs they are doing on the 7th, but if its Tourmalet then we camped about half way up, or Aubisque there is space to camp right at the top. Either way it was pretty easy.

And definitely take your bike. It's great riding up the climbs the morning before the race comes.

posted by gillerz960 [11 posts] 28th December 2012 - 13:07

These are the stages we're aiming for, in detail:
http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/stage-8.html
http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/stage-9.html

The second has lots of climbs so we don't necessarily need to be on the final ascent.

How do you get up the mountains? When do the roads close, etc.?

Thanks

posted by mckechan [57 posts] 28th December 2012 - 13:14

When I went we drove up, the road closes to cars early in the morning I think but it was not always consistent, I think it is best to drive up the day before. It closes to bikes a few hours before the race comes.

posted by gillerz960 [11 posts] 28th December 2012 - 13:31

I'm not going unfortunately (lack of funds) but could I just ask all you that are that if you fly the union FLAG please please fly/display it the right way round.

posted by FATBEGGARONABIKE [267 posts] 29th December 2012 - 16:40

FATBEGGARONABIKE wrote:

I'm not going unfortunately (lack of funds) but could I just ask all you that are that if you fly the union FLAG please please fly/display it the right way round.

Will do. We're actually going for my stag-do, so I may be wearing a Union Jack morph suit