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Americans in
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 It
was just past 2:00 pm, when we arrived at the Champs Elysee, the riders
were expected to arrive at 4-4:15 pm, but already the street was lined
5 deep from one end of the Champs Elysee to the other. There were mobs
of people on the top of le Arc de Triomphe (photo left); they had a birds
eye view of everything. There are many restaurants with second floor dining,
I tried at several to get seating, but was told they were all sold out.
We walked for miles looking for a place from which we would have a chance to see the riders and finally found one, that gave us a clear view of the race. Our view was about 10 meters wide, from 30 meters out from the road. We stood in place to hold this location and waited almost 2 hours for the riders to appear.
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When the riders finally arrived,
they were a blur as they whizzed by at 30 miles per hour. I had to be
quick and time it just right to get a photograph, but at least we saw
the riders twice on each of the 12 laps. I got a few pictures of Lance,
but most were blurred and a few were only of the back end of is bicycle.
Lance is the cyclist in yellow all the way to the right in this picture.
But it was certainly exciting to be part of this great event.
Our viewing spot was near the
500 Meter Sprint Banner. The excitement was electric and the noise was
deafening, and the noise was made worse by the vendors selling hats,
t-shirts and what have you nearby. The race was reported live via loud
speakers. But from where we stood the race coverage was drowned out
by the vendor's and their incessant chant. I thought many times of moving
to another location, but always realized our choice was between seeing
the event where we were or moving to a spot where we could hear the
event but not see it. We chose to see it.
The
final two laps were truly electric with fans pushing and shoving, climbing
fences and screaming, wildly for their favorites. Finally, it was over.
We headed toward the finish line hoping to get a glimpse of Lance, but
we never were able to get within a quarter mile of there, there were
so many people crushed in the space. Lance gave his victory speech in
French, and we were so proud. Then came the National Anthem, an even
prouder moment. We watched Jalabert and Ulrich receive their awards
and Zabel as well. It was very moving. I was able to get a few pictures
of Lance broadcast on a large screen near the stage, but we never saw
any of the awards presentations.
When we
thought it was all over we retreated to a small park to search our map
for directions to a restaurant Gail wanted to eat at. I took Gail's
picture next to a fabulous fountain. Suddenly we realized the teams
were taking a relaxed lap of victory around the Champs Elysee, and we
rushed to find a viewing spot. Again we were too late, the locals had
beaten us to the viewing spots, and the street was again lined five
deep. We managed to find a spot some four rows back and I did get some
pictures of the teams passing by. Unfortunately, Lance was concealed
behind a flag both times he passed, but it was still inspiring.