Day 13, July 17, 3026

Today we watched the Tour de France,,,from the front row

We were up at 4:30 and on the road just after 5 AM. The traffic was almost non existent, and the sun had already risen, so our broken headlight did not slow us down.  Our only worry as we headed to the Vosges Mountains was to be sure to obey the speed limit; there are many radar traps in France, and I've gotten a few tickets over the years.

We stopped in the village of Bussang for some pastries for breakfast and a baguette for our lunch, and then continued our mission to reach the Tour route, the D465, which was only 4 km away.  Amazingly there were no gendarmes blocking off the road, so we made it.  We were going to be able to park somewhere between there and the summit of the Ballon d'Alsace.  We were both ecstatic, our early morning wake up paid off!

As we started our climb up then  D465 were were shocked to see how many cars, RV's, and tents were now camped along the road.  For a while I was really worried if we would find a big enough spot to claim as our own, but we kept going, and we made it all the way to the summit with no one stopping us.

Space at the summit was very tight. Twice we parked in different spaces, only to be politely  asked by the gendarmes to move our car.  These gendarmes would never be hired by ICE, they were too polite!  

But our persistence paid off and we found a great spot.  It was cloudy, cold, rainy, and windy when we arrived, so we clearly didn't need the pop up tent we purchased to protect us from the sun.  So we just relaxed in the car.  It was just after 7 AM when we arrived at the summit and the racers were not expected until 5 pm.  It was going to be a long day at 3800 feet.

That's our rental car on the far right.

We passed the time napping, reading, and watching the herd of cattle who were grazing just opposite where we were parked. There was a continuous parade of spectators arriving, and the support staff for the whole tour had to set up the VIP tents, souvenirs stands, so we did not lack entertainment.

They used these tents for a VIP dining area.  Who knows what it cost to have a ticket for this?

Joni and I debated which of our three sons this  Norwegian fan looked like, what do you think?

It's now 3:30 PM and after sitting all day, the crowd was anxious for the Sponsor Caravan to arrive and throw out the SWAG.  Noah calls it instant garbage.

Joni and I were ready!

The Caravan finally arrives at 3:30 pm.  

We didn't get much SWAG, and what we did we gave to the three boys in the family next to us. Other years I would bring all the SWAG back to the US and distribute to the kids in my elementary school.  

90 minutes later the first riders, the breakaway, arrived.

Joni, far left, cheers for all riders. 

Just another spectator in a costume.

The Peloton never caught the breakaway.  Mauro Schmid, a Swiss rider on Australia's Team Jayco Alula, narrowly defeated eight other riders in a sprint finish. The Peloton, which included race leaders Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, 7:32 behind the leaders!

Once the last riders passed us around 5:30 PM we packed up our gear and said goodbye to our neighbors,  but our car didn't move for 60 minutes or so as the gendarmes allowed all the spectators who were either walking or cycling down the mountain get out of the way. A wise move.

Eventually we got going and around 7 PM, we were  just crawling down the mountain, just above the village of Saint Maurice-sur-Moselle.

The village of Saint Maurice-sur-Moselle

We finally were back in Colmar around 8:45 with just enough time to get to a restaurant before it closed. We had a delicious Alsatian dinner at Hansi and returned to the comfort of our apartment by 10:30 PM.

It was certainly a long day, 14+ hours of travel and waiting to watch 30 minutes of cycling action.  That's been our typical Tour watching experience since we first started doing this in 2008,  and we would both say it was worth every minute.  There's nothing like it.