Attending TdF: Start town or finish town?
 

Hey gang, I have a question that The Goog is evading me somewhat. We're going to be in France next summer, coincidentally during a certain stage race --which is awesome and kind of an accident. We're going to be in the Loire Valley about 2hrs drive from the start/finish towns for stages 11/12 (Poitiers and Chauvigny, respectively). My question is, if I'm to talk the whole family (10 of us, most of whom could care less if bikes ride by) into attending a spectacle of this magnitude --and honestly a bucket list item only I have-- should I suggest the start town (Chauvigny), where we could try and mingle with the riders and see the town after seeing them off, or go visit the finish town (Poitiers) and have lunch and see the town while trying to keep an eye on the race and then make our way to the finish and ceremonies? Keep in mind, if I'm asking 9 other people to spend 4hrs in the car to see a buncha lycra and shaved legs, I don't want them to be disappointed with the town and the other sites to see.

What would you choose? And in these specific locations, which is the better city to go visit? We're going to be staying just north of Saumur at the time, and it's the closest we'll be to the route during our trip.

Many thanks --

How cool that you will be there during the race! I dont have a suggestion as to which city or whether the start / finish. Poiters looks to be bigger with more public transportation which gives it an edge in my book.

I would say to suggest splitting the family for a day and taking those who want to go with you and reconnecting with the others later.

Good luck!

My vote would be Poitiers, but I’m a history fan.......a major battle of the Hundred Years’ War took place there.
Or perhaps somewhere along the route (which is likely not yet known) where you may get a better view of the riders.

Make sure you get a devil suit and chaps for the legs and run in front of your favorite rider when he rides by.

:lol:

I only watch the last bit of stages on tv usually so I'll take sides with your family here. I've been to Poitiers, it was a pretty little city with a nice vibe, it would be worth a detour anyway. At the finish at least there's excitement the family might pick up on, the start seems only interesting to the hardcore cycling fans. A city of that size is probably going to absorb such an event much better than a small village like Chauvigny so there's a bigger opporunity to see something else there. The infrastructure around might also absorb more of the extra traffic, I presume you would like to keep the time spend in the car limited to 4 or 5 hours.

A one-piece women's swim suit will work, as well.

If you go with the devil suit, improvise some type of pitchfork as well.

I believe the tour has an entire parade that precedes it. So, you could be at the finish, and see this parade and then see the riders come in.
If you are at the finish, then you could follow th action along the way, and get them interested - like saying 'there has been a solo rider off the front all day, but he may get swallowed up by a chasing grupo right about where we are, and then the sprinter teams will be fighting to launch their sprinters for the win."

I just looked at the stages. Stage 11 might be better - while we might think early-race flat sprinters stages are boring, they are exciting at the finish. And the open straight away at the end should make a lot of the finish dramatics visible to the nekkid eye.

Beautiful -- just the kinda discussion I was hoping for. I agree for the casual cycling fans, watching them fly in at 40+mph is far more exciting than the roll out. --I've had to explain what Km 0 means before, much easier to explain the first one across :)

It's nice to know Poitiers is the larger city, that will make the day more interesting as we can get there and mill around and catch things as they build up to the finale.

Thanks all!

Simple.

Futuroscope.

John

You get an A for creativity 👍

but that’s certainly the only way I’d see a Tour De France stage. I’d want to get the full effect. Only way to do that is dress the part and act a fool and maybe get a mention on TV broadcast by none other than Bob Roll

I can't tell you which is better, but a couple years ago I attended a start of the TdF stage. FWIW, this was my experience:

There was very little going on until maybe an hour, maybe two before the start. It was very quiet. We had paid way too much for VIP passes thinking there would be lots of free goodies and food and drink in the VIP village (it was just ok). We had visions of getting selfies with our favorite riders. However, the swag wasn't really that great and we would have done better if we simply lined up along the route and waited for the caravans to come through. Sadly, we missed out on most of that because we were in the VIP area.

About an hour before start all the buses rolled up and parked in a lot off limits to non-pass holders. While we did see a number of riders, they were all business at that point, most only emerging to hop on their bikes and ride up to the stage to be introduced (accessible to anyone that got there soon enough) and then over to line up for the peloton. We did see a few giving interviews (including Froome, Quintano, van Avermaet) but there was no mingling. Again, there would be zero chance of mingling outside the VIP area, although those that lined up early outside the VIP area would have gotten some good views and nice pictures. In the VIP/bus area, some people did chat up the mechanics and team members who were prepping bikes and doing other chores. It was pretty friendly and laid back. One mechanic let a kid sit on a bike. By the time we made our way to the start area, we practically missed it and were about twenty people back from decent viewing. I could just see the tops of riders and their backs as they rode away. It all happened very quickly.

And then it was over. They were gone and the small city emptied out.

We had some hours to kill before our train departed, so we strolled around the town. It wasn't the type of place that's listed in the guidebooks, but it was still nice (it is still France after all). We had an excellent lunch and visited an interesting little history and art museum. In the middle of town they had large screens set up to watch the TdF and there were a number of vendors selling official TdF gear along with charities selling food. It was a cool atmosphere.

I would pick a city that has some interesting things in it for the others in your group. I suspect that you can get a better viewing position in a start city than a final stage (although I would love to see a sprint finish in person), but that probably varies by place. Temper your expectations though. It's not an ideal sport for spectators, but definitely worth doing as a bucket list item and as a fan.

A couple more thoughts: be prepared for a lot of standing around doing nothing to wait for something to happen very quickly. If you have visions of taking 10 people and getting a great viewing spot on the finish line, we should probably pop that right now. You'll either need to shell out for VIP passes or beat every other cycling fanatic in Europe to the line.

If I were you, I would fly solo that day. Take the train if you can as normal routes near the route could be blocked off. If you don't already have a hotel anywhere near the TdF route, book it now.

you should go to the finish line in Poitiers. At least you could go for team bus and team area to see riders.
If you go to departure, team area is only with VIP access. So if you're lucky you'll see riders behind a career....

Enjoy Saumur, but do not miss others locations close to

this is also on my bucket list...

have a great trip!

If you want all day cycling entertainment/drama, see a TT. I was fortunate enough to see one in Luxembourg and also the rollout the next morning. Great opportunities for photos and autographs.

My sister happened to be in France a few years back during the latter stages of Le Tour. It's not only super crowded, you might not know what you're seeing.

Make sure to do something outrageous that we can see here on Bike Forums and be held up an example of what is wrong with Le Tour.:)