21 Étapes

Since this year started, there have been rumours that following the success of last year’s Paris Olympics cycling road race, the Tour de France (TdF) would look to revisit the iconic hill climb up to the Parisian district of Montmartre. ASO - the organisers of the Tour - were quick to dismiss the rumours. The TdF peloton was double the size of the Olympic one, there’s a huge retinue that follows every stage - team cars, officials, TV and press motorbikes and cars, sponsors, medical teams and gendarmerie. The narrow streets around Montmartre simply couldn’t support all this, and there was absolutely no space to support all the vast finish line facilities that appear ever day at the Tour. By February, some sort of circuit of Montmartre, followed by the traditional finish on the Champs Élysées was being mooted - and in fact I saw a provisional map. Perhaps it was just another rumour, perhaps it was possible. It even looked like I could watch somewhere around the crowded Montmartre streets...

It's a big trip in July. Here's what it looks like  

So I’ve done it. A small pension maturing proved too great a temptation, and I ordered a Brompton G Line. After a test ride at the Brompton shop in Long Acre, London, I decided that as I’m not getting any younger, I would get an electric version. Hopefully that’s future-proofed me. The G Line is just like a normal Brompton, but a bit bigger. As you can see from these photos it is bigger, with its 20 inch wheels, but folds down to almost the same size as a regular Brompton. It rides more like a normal bike though, and the handling isn’t so ‘immediate’ (twitchy). Now it’s time to get out and ride, for although it’s electric, that’s just ‘electric-assist’ - you still have to do plenty of pedalling! 

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 literall...

Yesterday, in Paris, ASO released the full routes of next year’s Tour de France Femmes and Tour de France. We already knew that the first three days were in the Lille area, and educated guesses were that it was heading along the northern French coast. It does indeed head west - as far as the Mûr-de-Bretagne, before heading for the Pyrénées via Clermont-Ferrand and Toulouse. Then it’s along the Mediterranean coast, past Carcassonne, Montpellier, Mont Ventoux and the Alps before the final day back in Paris. That’s 3320km of racing; I anticipate I’ll be doing considerably more driving. So for me, the hard work starts now. I’ve already booked my accommodation for both the Lille and Paris areas, but once the provisional route is available, I’ll be able to do detailed planning of where to watch and where to stay. I’m just hoping there isn’t an even more dedicated band of Tour followers who book up all the accommodation this week.

In my last post I wrote praising my Brompton C Line. And now Brompton have announced the bike that I really wanted. Doh! In late September Brompton announced the G Line - its first 20” folding bike. Although it has larger wheels, it folds into a space not much larger than the original Brompton. Link that with disc brakes and beefier tyres, you get a Brompton that is suitable for a range of surfaces, including gravel - hence the G in G Line. Ho hum 

So, time to look back on how things went for the try-out. In short, things went as well as I could have expected. I’ll address a few specific points below, but in general, I left feeling very optimistic. What I do need to concentrate on are the rhythms of everyday life, especially on the road. I will be living out of a suitcase in a car, both literally and metaphorically for nearly a month. I’ll have a variety of accommodations, and so I’ll have to pack an overnight rucsac to carry the bare essentials for each night’s stay in with me. One of these essentials must be a little kettle, mug and possibly teapot. I’m an inveterate tea drinker, and you certainly can’t rely on provision in French accommodation. It’s actually very difficult to get an overview of the Tour each day. You get bombarded with the bare results from many sources on social media, but trying to get a wider picture is difficult. In the end I realised that the hour-long nightly summary of the lamented itv4 coverage was the...