Take Me To Le Tour De France! Kde je muje Tchyne a Tchan?

We hit the mean streets of Europe.... wait a minute... we hit the Autobahn and headed across Europe in search of three things: Our family members, our cyling heroes, and a few good campsites!

Eyes on the road!

Back behind the wheel on Friday the 30th of June.

Destination: Brussels

Route: From Prague, through Germany, into the Netherlands, and into Belgium.

The drive was great, because as we motored through Germany we listened to World Cup game between Germany and Argentina. As the game went into a shootout, we could see the German drivers becoming nervous, and many of them pulled off to stop at rest stops, most of which have televisions. When Germany won the shootout we heard honks and saw people like those pictured below waving their hands in the air. Notice the German hair of the driver:
Finally we arrived in Brussels and after some train station confusion we were able to hug C & P.
We immediately drove into the Belgian countryside and set up our tents for the night. The campground was acceptable, especially since we were only there for about 6 hours.


A few short hours later and the sun was rising. We packed all our gear into the Skoda Fabia that we rented, and headed towards France.


The countryside in Belgium, Luxembourg, and northeastern France was beautiful and although there was some contruction on the road, and we couldn't find a gas station when we needed one, the driving and conversation was excellent. We made good time, arriving at the Strasbourg park and ride at about 10:00am. The public transportation system for le Tour de France was excellent, and we paid 2.60 Euro to park for the whole day and for tram tickets into the center. Things worked out great and we arrived in Tour Central very smoothly. Then it was time to figure out what this race was all about and see if we could recongize any of our cycling heroes!


We watched the Discovery team assistants move their time trial bikes onto trainers, but didn't see any of the riders. Then we moved on to T-Mobile, but apparently all the questions about drugs and blood doping kept the riders away from the media and the fans. Strasbourg is right on the French/German border, and so there were thousands of T-Mobile and Gerolsteiner supporters everywhere.

T and anything Danish: Inseparable.

We spent some time watching the CSC mechanics put the final touches on a few time-trial bikes.

And then it was time for the Tour to start! For those of you with some curiousity, the first day of the Tour de France starts with a VERY short individual race against the clock where each rider tries to go around a small, circular route as fast as they can. The course was only a few miles long, and took only about 12 minutes for most of the riders. Here the first rider of the 2006 Tour, Cédric Coutouly of team Agritubel, is leaving the starting ramp:

From many places on the course you could see the riders heading out from the start and racing to the finish.

Watching the Prologue on Saturday, July 1st.

Above: Interested spectators. Below: A disinterested specator.

Thor Hushovd, the eventual winner, flies by.

Here is Floyd Landis!
George Hincapie was the last rider to zip by us.

A typical group of American cycling fans in France:

After we watched the last rider whiz by we walked along the Rhine river and then made our way back to the rental car, where we embarked on a quest to find a campsite. It took longer than you would imagine, but a really nice woman at a French pizzaria gave us the page out of her phone book with all the campsites. And French people aren't supposed to be nice to English speakers?

A perfect campsite in France. We were setting up the tents at night when France beat Brazil. This little village literally erupted. There was cheering and honking for a couple of hours.

The view of the village from near our campsite:

Back in Strasbourg for Stage One. The ceremonial start (Departee Fictiv) made its way through town before the official start just outside. We watched the fake start so we could see each rider. Since it was "fictional" all the riders were talking and riding at a slow pace through the center of Strasbourg. We found a good spot on the route near a cafe. You can't go to France without enjoying coffee at an outdoor cafe.

After a nice rendition of the French national anthem, the peleton made it's 2006 debut. Quite a sight!

Tom Boonen fixes his World Champion jersey:

After the Peleton went by we walked around the center of town.

While the riders completed the loop back to Strasbourg, we had time to visit the cathedral:

Climb to the top of it:And, of course, tango in front of it:


Back at the race, we watched the sponsor cars drive by and picked up a few free gifts. Skoda probably isn't advertising their new car, the Skoda Roomster, on OLN, are they?
Ok, several free gifts!

We staked out a spot exactly at the 1 kilometer mark. We're standing under the red triangle.

The first riders appear around the bend:

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Jimmy Casper wins the sprint!

It actually takes longer for the peleton to fly by than you would think. They were so spread out racing for the first sprint that they were almost single-file for several seconds.

The first brush with fame? Bob Roll!! He was kind enough to autograph Alex's big green hand - just minutes after one of them wounded Thor Hushovd in the final kilometer.

Vive Le Tour!

GERMANY

After the Tour we headed to Prague via Germany. Here we visited the sites of 3 German Greats: Wagner, Bach and Reiman:

Our stay in Germany was short: we camped Sunday night near one of the Audi factories, and then drove to Leipzig for lunch on Monday. Soon we were back in....

PRAGUE
Back in Prague, we were lucky enough to meet up with Tina's Danish host brother Chris and his friend Soren at our favorite Prague restaurant.


It wasn't long before Dad found the clay courts which are all over Prague.

The weather, for the last of our guests, was perfect every day. A walk across the Charles Bridge.

More adventures coming shortly! Think bikes, tents, and castles! See you soon.