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Let’s Talk Tour (Part 2)
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Mt. Ventoux might be the crux in 2009
The route for the 2009 Tour which was revealed on October 22 caused my two remaining brain cells to synapse, flooding my usually blank head with nearly-faded memories of southern France. After rolling through territory that my own two wheels learned to love so well, the riders will head toward the Pyrenees on Stage 6, which starts in Girona, Spain and ends in Barcelona. Girona used to be THE European home for American pros. Since Lance decamped in 2005, the remaining American riders have spread out somewhat, but it is still considered ground-zero for Yanks who make it to the big-time. It would be fun to watch the start of Stage 6 in Girona, trying to recover from an evening at El Bulli, the Michelin 3-star restaurant that many consider to be the very best in the world.
If Buenos Aires is the Paris of Argentina, then Barcelona is the Barcelona of Spain, because there is no place like it. If you watch the Tour there, stay near Las Ramblas, eat lots of Tapas (don’t expect dinner before 9:00 pm, though), view as many of Gaudi’s supremely drooping buildings as possible, and make sure you take in his still-unfinished La Sagrada Familia Cathedral.
Stage 7 takes the riders into the towering mountains, starting in Barcelona and ending high in the Pyrenees in the city/state of Andorra. The climbing is ferocious in this area and the true challengers will make themselves known on this stage. Andorra is a jewel, with lots of duty-free shopping and great restaurants that offer exquisite specialties from Spain and France.
After the first rest day on July 13, Bastille Day has Stage 10 starting in Limoges then taking a relatively flat route to Issoudun. Limoges probably has plenty of good restaurants (what French city doesn’t?), but it is truly famous for the delicate porcelain products produced and sold there. Even though the day’s traverse is flat compared to the high mountains the riders just exited, the course skirts the Massif Centrale, meaning there will be plenty of elevation gained and lost during the day.
Vittel is famous for its bottled water, probably the second most popular brand in France. I’ve never taken the Vittel factory tour, but if you decide to do so, be prepared to be underwhelmed. When I visited the Perrier plant a number of years ago, I was surprised to find it perched in the middle of a swamp. Although the tour guides took great pains to explain to us that the water came from some miraculous source many kilometers away, it was hard to keep the images of mossy, slimy marsh water from “swamping” my brain. In 1990, I saw Raul Alcala win the time trial centered around Vittel, beating a soon-to-be-household name, Miguel Indurain, by more than a minute, with defending champion Greg LeMond more than 2 minutes in arrears.
In 2009, Vittel will be the starting point for Stage 13, which shuttles the riders to the Alsace where they will find some snappy climbs before entering the more-German-than-French city of Colmar. Colmar has as much old-town charm as you can stand. Sample the sauerkraut and bratwursts here, and do not leave town without seeing the Eisenheim Altarpiece by Matthais Grunewald, a piece that has been described as “a shudder in paint.” The multi-panel work is truly bizarre but should not be missed.
From Colmar, the lads head south to Besancon, a town that has seen its share of Tour stages. I was packed tight against the barriers just before the finish line in 1990 to watch Olaf Ludwig outsprint Johan Museeuw and our very own Ron Kiefel for victory. LeMond finished safely in the group just 21 seconds back, as he continued to claw his way back from a nearly 10 minute deficit that the wily Italian, Claudio Chiapucci had opened (along with Canadian Steve Bauer) on the very first stage of that year’s Tour.
Watching the Tour roar into Paris and circle the inner city for nine high-speed laps is an occurrence that every true Tour fan has to experience at least once. I scratched my itch in 1991 when I sat on a stone wall on the edge of the Place de la Concorde and was thrilled to see Greg LeMond fly by in a solo attack, trying to regain some honor and confidence from a Tour that had gone horribly wrong (he finished 7th to Indurain at 13’13”). Each time the race came by, LeMond’s lead had shrunk by a few more seconds to the peloton which was being towed along by the blonde pony-tail of Laurent Fignon. The French woman next to me dutifully sang out, “Fignon, il est toujours la!” each time the spectacle charged by. Greg’s defiance only lasted for a few laps and the finale, as always, went to the sprinters. But that year’s sprint was nearly eclipsed by a spectacularly bloody crash involving Green Jersey wearer Djamolodine Abdoujaparov (Konyshev won ahead of Ludwig and Jalabert). Don’t expect to find bleacher seats or anything reasonable near the actual finish line, but Paris is a big city and there are plenty of inviting locations where you can see enough of the race to claim your Tour bona fides.
2009 will be a great year to watch the Tour. With Lance’s possible return, the intrigue will be palpable. Extrapolating the recent upward movement of the dollar against the Euro predicts a rate of 3 Euros to the dollar by July of 2009, so you should be able to afford the finest hotels and best food. Even if the dollar sinks back to its accustomed level (0.65 Euros per dollar), a visit to La Grande Boucle is always worth serious consideration.
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