This summer has provided ample opportunity for Allison and I to enjoy watching professional bike riders fly by in 2 stages of the Tour de Suisse and 2 stages of the Tour de France. The Tour de Suisse is a shorter stage race (9 total, Switzerland isn’t big enough for a Tour de France sized race), but is a lot more accessible, and closer to home. the Tour de France is, well, the most famous of the stage races, and the scale is incredible.
Tour de Suisse Stage 6 (End in Bad Zurzach):
For the stage ending in Bad Zurzach, we rented a Tandem bike from a local bike shop and headed up to the finish. The riders passed by twice and had a slight uphill sprint to the finish. A pleasant 25km bikeride home completed a lovely day not at the office.
Tour de Suisse Stage 9 (Time trial in Bern):
The final stage was a time trial which saw the Swiss champion destroy the competition and not only win the stage but the full race as well. The day was beautiful, and the atmosphere was great. We were able to get up on the fence just after the finish line to see the racers finish the circuit. The nice part of this was that there was always something going on, since each rider rode the course solo. This gave us ample time to get our Schwag on, and play games. One game allowed me to draw on my superior abilities with a screwdriver, and I won a free cordless drill.
Tour de France Stage 15:
This was the briefest of the Tour viewings for Allison and I, only seeing the riders go by once, and at a pretty fast clip. Nevertheless, seeing the whole tour caravan go by is a pretty interesting site, some schwag wagons in front by 20 minutes or so, selling gear and announcing the imminent arrival of the riders, motorcycles and police cars clearing the way, the riders passing en masse, followed by the team cars and other support vehicles… coordinated mayhem.
Tour de France Stage 21 (Champs-Élysées):
Pretty fun stage to watch even though the race is over at this point. The riders made 8 laps around the Champs-Élysées meaning we got to see them 16 times (video of one), good value for a bike race. There wasn’t much free schwag for this race although we did manage to score some free green hands. The vast number of people was incredible, and made the Tour de Suisse final look like an amateur event.
The races were a lot of fun, and we’re already thinking about the Vuelta or next year’s Giro…and possibly even taking a week off and following the riders around France for the big one next year. Go Radio Shack!
