Sunday 8 July 2007

Tour De France 8 July 2007 Le Grand Depart

I have had such a lovely day as one of the stewards on the Tour De France. I reported for duty shortly after 5.30am this morning and patrolled an area just a few metres away from the official start od the Tour De France. The first couple of pictures come from the Caravan that preceded the riders. You can see them crossing the official start line (KM0) . . . . Sadly I was not so clever with the riders, it all happened so quickly it was point and shoot! It was a great experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. PS I wasn't supposed to be taking any photos as I was supposed to be on duty, so shhhhhhh I won't tell if you don't!



Just to give you some idea of the crowds. This was the section I was covering along with Dave (from Wandsworth) and Chris (from New Jersey). This picture is taken looking away from the start.



My section was given the area from Deptford to Greenwich to steward, and I was quite determined not to be left in Deptford!! By sheer good luck I ended up only 10 metres away from the start line... a whole 2,221 miles away from the end of the tour in Paris on 29th July!! This is no exaggeration as for about 2 hours my partner and I had absolutely no idea that we were standing so close to the start! We had thought that KM0 was a fancy airline name or something... Not Kilometre Zero!!!!!!! Sorry these photos are probably v boring (what's new????) but I am pleased that I got to capture a moment of sporting history!


























Straight behind the peleton come all the support vehicles, with the spare bikes and spare wheels for the inevitable punctures and crashes! Only one of these photos promise!!






and finally Orange is the 'new black' This is my hardy marshal colleagues at 6.30am this morning waiting to go out onto the mean streets to await the peleton. We all looked fabby in our 'high visibilty vests'












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