Tour 2004 photo gallery
Up Close and Personal
By Graham R. Jones, December 2004

When you go to see the Tour de France you do not really see the race. However visiting the Tour brings a completely different aspect to the Tour experience. For the millions of fans that make the annual pilgrimage to this great event getting close to the action and their hero’s is a major attraction. Here CyclingRevealed captures the essence of the Tour through photo galleries that give you the flavor of this great event.

Typically Tour photographers focus on the riders and their entourage. Yet every day of the race upwards of one million spectators line the roads. Fans from around the world as well as many unusual and sometimes exotic personalities such as ‘the devil’ line the race route. At times the crowds can be overwhelming and somewhat unruly. With so many people being literally inches away from the riders their natural anxiety makes for nervous times. Lance Armstrong and others have had fears of an incident for years. The memory of Eddy Merckx being punched in 1975 by a drunken fan still makes riders wary. However on the whole, the fans respect the peloton and the race usually cruises its way through the masses without incident.

There are numerous opportunities to make contact with the riders and other well known race personalities. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get to the right place at the right time. Having gotten to where you want to be, the next important thing is to act like an intelligent human being. This may sound strange but confronting well known people is a skill in and of itself. Usually the ‘meetings’ are at times when hundreds of people are milling around, shoving and pushing to get near their hero’s. Many fans tend to act like idiots. They become ‘star struck’ and simply lose any sense of courtesy or common sense. My approach is to be ready with something intelligent to say and to totally avoid shoving something at your poor victim to sign. Also, one needs to sense when it is time to express appreciation for the chat and quietly move on.

Interestingly most of the Tour personalities welcome the chance to chat and, as I discovered, many of them would love to get copies of the photos that we all take. Being at the center of attention they rarely get to collect ‘memorabilia’ for themselves.

It is possible to meet quite a few of the riders and the ‘rest days’ present some of the best opportunities. For example on July 12 in Limoges I visited the hotel housing Phonak and Lotto. While milling around the team vehicles I noticed Rick Verbrugghe (Lotto) casually sitting on the tail gate of his team equipment truck as the mechanic worked on the bikes. I asked him how the race was going. His response was that it was one of the most dangerous races that he had ever ridden. The normal first week Tour nervousness was enhanced through bad roads, bad weather and dangerous riding. He was looking forward to the relative calm of the mountains. I asked what had happened on Stage 6 when a huge number of the peloton hit the deck right under the ‘flamme rouge’ (1km to go). His explanation was that Andrej Hauptmann clipped the curb to the sidewalk, fell sideways and sparked a domino effect. Thanking Rick I asked if he minded me taking his picture to which he gladly agreed and then as I turned to leave he said that I could catch up with Axel Merckx in the hotel restaurant!! And that was how I managed to capture a great informal shot of Axel. Unfortunately he was in deep conversation with his team companions so I left him in peace even though I was itching to chat with him.

Out on the open road you can only hope to see brief snatches of the race itself, but with good prior planning you can maximize the experience. During a time trial choose a long open stretch of road. In the mountains aim for an area with a great view down the slopes so that you can see the race winding it’s way up to you. Especially in the mountains, it is necessary to set out many hours before the race arrives in order to reach the optimal viewing area. The police are extremely effective at shutting down the roads. Two, and sometimes three hours before the race arrives even cyclists and walkers are banned from the course. My preference in the mountains is to get to within 1.5km or so from the summit of major climbs. If it is a mountain top finish this is usually where the most brutal efforts are being made. Depending on the local geography, the road will either be cordoned off with barriers or the crowd will spill on to the road leaving just a slim passage for the riders. The Tourmalet and Plateau de Bielle had no barriers until the final couple of km’s. It is in these places that the Tour experience reaches fever pitch. The TV images of these locations ‘sanitize’ the atmosphere. Believe me, it is a mad house when you are actually there and you are only inches away from the greatest athletes in the world. In contrast this year the final km’s of Alpe d’Huez ITT were hermetically sealed with barriers. So if you execute good prior planning and choose well, you will be rewarded with a fantastic experience.

The Tour is ‘larger than life’. To be there is an experience not to be missed by any cycle racing fan. Having access to people we only normally only read about or see on the TV, adds a completely new dimension to this great event. Finally, the icing on the cake is the terrain, culture and people of the countries that a race passes through. Strangely, although the whole thing is played out in public places and the wide open countryside, the sum of the experience is very intimate.

Here we present a photo album focusing on the riders and their entourage. In the next edition of CyclingRevealed we will look at some of the crowds that turn out in their millions to see the Tour live.