21 Étapes

Seven days to go A week today I’ll be in the middle of a trip of over 700km, driving from the Bordeaux area to Lens in the NE of France in preparation for the 2025 Tour de France Grand Départ. Things are falling into place. All my accommodation is booked - I’ve got a total of ten nights in Airbnbs, of which four places are double-night says; nine nights in B&B Hotels in three different places; two nights in different Ibis hotels; four nights in other hotels. Out of 25 nights on the road around the whole of France, I’ve managed seven multiple-night stays in accommodation, which feels like pretty good going. Packing is also going well - still a bit of work on the bike, still a few things to buy, but it’s largely finished, as are the jobs around the house I need to finish before leaving for nearly a month on the road.  The main development is that I’ve managed to get hold of a copy of the Tour de France 2025 Media Road Book. Only published a couple of weeks before the start of the...

The French love a countdown.  Whether it’s the sales (Les Soldes), La Retour (the start of the new school year), or a big event such as the Olympics or the Tour de France, you’ll frequently see ´J-xxx’. And today marks J-28 - just four weeks to the first stage of this year’s Tour de France.  Just 28 days - or in my case just 25 days until I head off to the Land of the Ch’ti in preparation for this year’s Grand Depart.  Preparations are well underway. There’s a little fettling needed to the bike, and shopping and packing lists to prepare. Some nights I’m in commercial hotels, but often in Airbnb apartments - so those nights I can cater for myself, and I’ve even got the luxury of a washing machine on one stay. I will have to visit supermarkets, but want to keep these to a minimum, and buying as much stuff as possible in advance will help.  But it’s all becoming very real now. 

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.