2016 Tour de France
Comments
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Val, found this website which appears to have all details on it. Carcassonne to Montpellier is 13th of July.
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Thanks Ina - that's the one I was looking at, and I knew the date was the 13th (followed by Bastille Day fireworks in Carcassonne on the 14th). What I can't see the level of detail you normally get with the actual road numbers being used, and approximate times the tour will pass along that route.
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The web site of choice for all the details is the Tours own website: http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2016/us/overall-route.html
They will publish the specific routes including timings for the caravan and the race to pass specific points. Just start and finish details on there at the moment but the rest will follow in due course.
Tips for watching if you've never been before:
Try to find a place where they have to ride up hill or have to go round a tight bend (it slows them down so you see more)
Standing roadside on a flat section will result in a blur of cyclists whizzing past you.
Try to make a day of it. Pick a small town, get there early, enjoy lunch and join in the festivities. Pick your spot (on a bend at the top of an incline) and get there early. The promotional caravan goes through an hour ahead of the race and more people
go to see that than watch the race!Stage Departs are great because you get to see the riders up close for longer, plus the stage starts with a slow procession around the town before racing proper starts as they head out. Then go for lunch, find a bar and enjoy the afternoon watching it on
the telly with the locals.If you are going, have fun, It really is a great spectacle. We'll be taking in the depart of Stage 4 from Saumur on Mr Bollingers birthday.
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We were lucky with the Tour de France in 2014 - and managed to see two different stages, on two different days, without walking very far from a campsite in Harrogate. Day 1 we saw them coming down hill to the finish in Harrogate (but not near enough the
actual finish line to see the awful end to that day for Mark Cavendish). The second day we saw them curving down the hill and across the river bridge in Knaresborough. Both were fantastic sunny days, and definitely exciting!0 -
We're very tempted by Stage 20, in the Alpes. The route passes through Le Grand Bornand, where there's a nice looking site in the Club's Venture Abroad brochure. L'Escale, M07 in the brochure.
We've watched Le Tour quite a few times now, always a fantastic day.
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How do you find the exact route? One stage is between Carcassonne and Montpellier, not far from our house, so we should only be within a short drive, but I can't find the exact route on the website yet. THIS is the general information site of the tour.
...Hi Val. It is our Department Press Office that sent out details to all local businesses. Our friends own the campsite just along the road from us at Saint Parthem where the Tour passes on 7th July.
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The detailed route with timings for the caravan and riders based on about 3 average speeds is published nearer the time. When we watched it in 2013 I bought the official guide which had it all in, but it is also available on the TDF web site. In the Vaucluse
the Department published a very useful free guide, available from the tourist information. We watched it on the lower slopes of Mount Ventoux. We parked about 2km from the route and walked. Set up our picnic under the shade of some fruit trees and had a fantastic
time. The French are very well organised when it comes to the TDF. The deparmental leaflet also gave details of free car parks and shuttle buses. On the day after the rest day we parked some 20 km away, and were shuttled, in an air conditioned coach, to the
grand depart at Vaison. Where we saw the riders at close quarters before they started racing. Well worth doing but find a shuttle, trying to take your own car would have been a nightmare.0 -
I would agree with all that SteveL has said.
We have 'done' the tour twice and in 2011 from start to finish,seeing the first and last stages and 5 in between and as said the way that spectators are looked after is amazing with free parking and buses and we also found that getting info from the local
tourist information was the best source. I have followed cycling since boyhood but my wife had no interest however, as with many things seeing a live performance changed that and the tour really is something different. Just make sure that,as said earlier,
you plan yor viewing to maximise the effort you have put in to get there!0 -
How do you find the exact route? One stage is between Carcassonne and Montpellier, not far from our house, so we should only be within a short drive, but I can't find the exact route on the website yet.
THIS is the general information site of the tour....Hi Val. It is our Department Press Office that sent out details to all local businesses. Our friends own the campsite just along the road from us at Saint Parthem where the Tour passes on 7th July.
I expect we'll have the local information through our letter box when we go back to France later in February. We're usually kept quite up to date with what's happening in the village, and the areas around us.
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