by Garrett Lau
In July 2001, Jeff Tse and I went on a three-week VeloSport Vacations bicycle tour that followed the Tour de France. My report is in three parts:
18 July 2001: I wake up to the sound of
heavy rain. At breakfast, I discover that today’s ride is canceled.
Miraculously, the rain stops and the sky clears after lunch, so Jeff and I walk
out to the TT course. The main road from our hotel meets the course at a
roundabout, at the base of the climb to Chamrousse. We watch the race from the
middle of the roundabout until the gendarme
chases us away. Jeff goes one way, towards the start, while I go the other, up
the hill. The crowds get thicker further up the hill, so I stay close to the
bottom. This is not the ideal location, since the riders will be zipping by
pretty fast, but at least I have an unobstructed view.
One
by one, each rider speeds by me. When Bobby Julich approaches, he sits up and
rides no-hands. What’s he doing? He’s taking off his helmet! I snap a picture,
and then watch him hand his helmet to the spectator standing across from me.
Julich’s follow car stops to get the helmet back. Cool. This location is not
too bad after all. When Lance Armstrong comes by, he does the same thing,
except that he holds his helmet out toward me! I’m seeing this through my
camera, so by the time I remove the camera from my face, it’s too late to grab
the helmet. Lance hands it to someone 10 yards up the hill from me. Well, at
least I got a good picture.
As
usual, we watch the end of the stage on TV. This time, it’s at a conference
room in our hotel. I don’t even notice Frankie Andreu until Jeff comes in and
sits down next to him. After spending the whole tour with the other Velosport
groups, Frankie is spending the final night with us.
Our
farewell dinner is this evening. It’s sad to see everyone in our tour group go,
but Jeff and I are staying on for the second half of the tour. Although we’re
switching to another group with different guides, our guides assure us that we
will see them again.
19 July: Jeff and I board the bus
for Lourdes with our new guides. Sammarye Lewis is also on the bus, as she is
the only other VeloSport client doing both halves of the tour. Sometimes,
motorists honk excitedly because of Sammarye’s Lance Armstrong Fan Club banner
in the window. Aside from that, the trip is just another long, boring bus ride
in the rain.
20 July: Since our guides are busy
with the arrivals of everyone else in our new group, Jeff and I are on our own
today. We ride out of the valley to a nearby town for lunch. On the hills on
the way back, we mix in with a couple of very strong local riders.
21 July: Our first ride with the new
group features the Col d’Aspin, a Category 1 climb that is very similar to
California Highway 9 in terms of gradient and distance. Of course the scenery
is vastly different, including huge cows standing in the road, and RV’s camped
out at the top (even though the race doesn’t go on this road until tomorrow).
Our destination is the base of the Col de Val Louron-Azet. Just like our first
day on the first half of the tour, we arrive at our picnic spot way before the
car with our lunches, but this time, there are only five of us in the lead
group. Everyone else is significantly slower.
After
lunch, we scramble for more swag from the publicity caravan, watch the racers
on the climb, and then crowd into a bar to watch the end of the stage on TV.
Everyone in the bar cheers as Armstrong wins the stage convincingly and dons
the maillot jaune.
22 July: The main climb today is the
Col du Tourmalet. It is 10.5 miles to the top, but our lunch spot is only eight
miles up, in the town of La Mongie. I cover these eight miles in less than an
hour, so I keep going. This is where it gets difficult. As if the 10% grade
isn’t hard enough, I also have to deal with crowds on the road and oppressive
heat. Even though I slow down to 5 mph, I still manage to pass one of the guys
in our group who was ahead of me. This makes me the third rider in our group to
reach the top. Not bad.
What’s
worse than trying to ride through a crowd of rowdy Basques? Trying to take
pictures among them when the racers come by. Similar to our first day, the
crowd is a sea of people that parts just enough for the riders to pass, but
this time, the sea is rougher, and it is orange, the color of the
Euskaltel-Euskadi team. Once again, we watch the end of the stage on TV in a
bar. There is wild celebration in the streets when Euskadi rider Roberto
Laiseka wins.
Our
return trip is supposed to simply reverse the way we came. However, even with
three guides, we get lost and don’t get back to our hotel until after 9pm. I am
very upset.
23
July:
Frankie Andreu has arranged for us to take pictures with the USPS team on their
rest day. It’s not as exciting as it might sound. We wait outside their hotel
all morning just to take a group photo. We can’t even ask for autographs. Fassa
Bortolo is at the same hotel, and their riders are more accessible, but nobody
in our group is interested. We haven’t even heard of them. Who’s this guy
Petacchi? He looks like a model. Can he ride?
Back
in Lourdes, the ride on our itinerary is Hautacam, but I’m pretty tired, so
Frankie recommends “the forest.” Jeff and Andy, another strong rider, go with
me. Unfortunately, we miss a turn and end up climbing a significant hill. Well,
at least I know the way back. At dinner, we celebrate Andy’s 40th
birthday.
24
July: We
ride the last 40 miles of the race route into Lavaur. The folks I’ve been
hanging out with decide to watch the race on TV at a bar, but I want to be at
the finish line. Unfortunately, since I’m three rows back from the fence, I
only see the riders for a split second. Petacchi wins the field sprint for 3rd,
six seconds behind Verbrugghe and Pinotti. The best photo I get is after the race,
when the Texas bikini girls pose for me. We then board the bus for our next
hotel in Cahors.
All pictures from this trip: