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Tour de France 2016


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Came through our village yesterday...

I managed to get a snap of Chris Froome in the yellow jersey[:)]

[URL=http://s253.photobucket.com/user/bfb_album/media/tour_zpsbnbax5gt.jpg.html][IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh80/bfb_album/tour_zpsbnbax5gt.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

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They went through several of the villages around here today, but I was at the opticians, having my annual check-up .... seen it twice before though, the last time as it sped through our own town... so not too disappointed.  Good pic though NormanH - well done!

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Norman is, helas, being rather disingenuous; he was in fact dressed in a total body costume, same colour as the yellow jersey.

A second after taking the picture he stepped up close to Chris Froome and said something that I would not dare repeat, so Froomey smacked him one.

Don't believe me, the check the photos of the race; I think the straight left followed by a well aimed elbow cost Froome a stiff fine but it was probably worth it.

On the other hand, it was the best day's begging Norman has had in years. Apparently, he had a card saying "I am a Brit, please help me leave."

Bless!
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I have a picture of Lance Armstrong climbing the chicanes in L' Alpe d'huez. But that was taken with an old Nikon film camera. He did not look like he was doing drugs.

L'Alpe is a good place to watch the tour as when they get to the top they are knackered so they are cycling a bit slower.

Having seen the tour a few times now I have come realise that hills are a good place to sit and watch it otherwise they just whizz past and that is it.

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Mount Ventoux climb cut back 6 kms today because of the high winds and will finish at Chalet Reynard. A shame but I gather the winds have been so high above the tree line (Chalet Reynard) that it was considered too dangerous to do the usual finish at the very top.

I will be interesting to see how (if) Froome and Quintana fight it out.

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IT has been very windy here, more like winter than summer, wind wise.  So not entirely a surprise ... they would have been battling north winds yesterday on the stage passing near us, as they climbed the relatively small in comparison to Mont Ventoux, hills, so maybe learnt their lesson from that.

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What the TV commentators didn't tell you was it was the Motorbike that was taking the video that was impeded and the riders crashed into.

Normally the last few kilometres have crowd barriers, but as the race had been shortened by 6 kms in the morning there hadn't been time to put them up, hence the chaos.

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Ah that makes sense.

Chris Boardman was going on about the lack of crowd barriers and I agreed with him, forgetting that the finish was in a different place.

A bad incident but salvaged as good as could be by the Committee invoking the 'crash within 3Kms rule' even though it was a mountain stage and it normally doesn't apply.

Hats off to Adam Yates who technically would have been in Yellow but he said he didn't want it if he couldn't win it fair and square without crashes.

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I watch the TdF for the scenery, the overhead shots of the villages, and countryside - otherwise just a load of quite handsome strong sturdy legs flashing round and round....

But I have wondered about some of the 'fans', particularly on the hill climbs - some of them seem to be complete 'nutters'.   Also the British riders have been subjected to one or two nasty incidents in previous years, and I did wonder if there would be any signs of 'anti-British feeling - which happily doesn't seem to have happened.

When the TdF sped through this area last year - the heavens opened, and we couldn't see much for all the rain and spray - summer in southern France !!

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