Accommodated

And that’s a wrap.

After a little messing around, the final piece has fallen into place, and I’ve booked my last accommodation for this year’s Tour de France - an Airbnb in Crest, Drôme (26400) for the night of 22 July, ready for  stage 17, 161 km from Bollène to Valence on Wednesday 23 July.

This accommodation is an example of the planning that I needed to do for each night’s stay. First of all I’m looking for somewhere which is close to the next day’s racing - you’re always a day ahead with accommodation. Somewhere with parking, hopefully for the next day as well if needed. Somewhere you can walk, cycle or drive to the stage itself to spend two hours waiting for those 30 seconds to watch the race shoot by, and then somewhere that offers an easy exit for the drive to that night’s accommodation. I also want to stay somewhere with a restaurant or cooking facilites for an evening meal, a boulangerie for breakfast, and a shop for the day’s provisions. It’s no good if you are literally in the middle of the countryside, as some of the accommodation I’ve been offered.

For this particular stage, I’m aiming to leave the car in Crest and cycle around 10km, (with 300m climb!) to the summit of an escarpment which will hopefully feature as a category 3 or 4 climb of around 260m on a stage which is billed as ‘flat’. As it’s 40km from the finish, there’s always the chance of a Pogačar attack.  cyclingstage.com carries the detailed route as it’s known at the moment, which has proved invaluable. ASO don’t make the final route available until very close to the day of racing. 

After the peloton flashes past, it’s hopefully a quick descent back down to Crest for a 190km drive to Ugine, near Albertville, to my accommodation for the night, ready for the next day’s racing. Part of my route out of Crest will be on the day’s stage route, so I will probably have to take a series of minor roads to avoid the barrage. It sometimes can take many hours for these to be lifted, so there will always be imponderables along the way.