[Shades]

On my return leg from a family holiday in France I’ve managed to cross paths with this years Tour. It’s the stage to Gap so my plan was to park up not far from the route and cycle part way up the Cat 2 climb so they don’t fly past too quickly. It’s not a ‘major’ stage so I’m not expecting any problems, but are there any ‘pitfalls’ e.g. how soon do they close the roads? Can you still cycle up the road if they’ve closed it? Do you get a lot of other people doing a similar thing so traffic and finding a parking spot becomes an issue? Any petty theft issues (car break-ins, bikes)? I’ve got the timings off the Tour website.

Topic

[aje]

We did a similar thing last
We did a similar thing last year in Northern France, and sought out the steepest hill at Mont Noir. There was great party atmosphere, we parked up and cycled the hill just after the caravan (check times, it is big) to the cheers and ‘allez, allezs’ of the expectant audience. The French are quite laid back, the roads are too long to close, but you would be physically unwise to get in the way of the caravan or the early support vehicles. I did not steal or break into any vehicles myself. Have a great time.

[Author]

Replies