Life around Tour de France – Stage 9
Sports Travel / Tourism
This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a professional quizmaster and a passionate traveler
A route through Lourde !!
The 9th Stage in this years Tour de France started off in St.Gaudens & ended in the town of Tarbes. This is a very untypical stage in Pyrenees as with stage the visit to Pyrenees & south France ends and though there are two mountain stages in the infamous Col d’Aspin & the Col du Tourmalet, there is over 70 kms of straight downhill stretch after the climb where the peleton can catch up with any breakaway.
The town of St.Gaudens is seeing the tour come back after 1999. The cyclists will start of from the aptly name “Friends of the Tour de France” street and will start racing from the Valentine Water Tower.
Enroute today, the cyclists crossed the most famous of the pilgrim towns in France – Lourdes, a village famous for the famous Virgin Mary sightings by Bernadette Soubirous. The story goes that when she along with her siblings were gathering woods near a cave – she lifted her head to see a young girl, surrounded by light, who looked at her & smiled. Bernedette had 18 visions of Virgin Mary and today the cave is one of the most popular destinations in France, so much so that after Paris, it attracts the most number of tourists in France.
Apart from the cave, the Basilica of the Rosary is one of the largest Romanesque style cathedrals in the world. The Lourdes Castle & the house of Bernadette is also very famous amongst all visitors here.
As for history, the last time a stage finish took place on the Tour at Tarbes was almost 60 years back!! And that race in 1951 is remembered more for the escape which the tour leader Wim Van Est, the Dutch cyclist, who was leading the tour had when he fell into a 250 ft ravine on the descent and survived!!
The toughness of the sport is such that there are few few Asians on the Major cycling teams around the world. A sport totally dominated by the European teams, the riders from Asian countries are few & far. With 2 Japanese riders – Fumiyuki Beppu of the Skil team & Yukiya Arashiro of the Bouygues team in the 20 teams racing here, once in a while we do see the nippon flags on the sideways. Guess, it will take over 5-6 years before we see a Indian rider on the Tour???
The talk amongst the public is already of the fear that a fresh doping scandal might break out any day!! The Anti-Doping authorities checked on Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer & Kloden at Andorra once at the end of Stage 7 & again took another sample from Armstrong the next day before beginning Stage 8 has only strengthened that notion. But as Armstrong himself tweeted in his site – it is a welcome move and one that will keep the tour above all suspicion. Talking to Micheal & his family, who had driven down from Toulouse to show his children the spirit of the race, in the olden days the race was very open and you could go sit with the champion & perhaps even buy them a drink after the race!!
For those who saw the riders coming in to finish the race today, it was a strange sight as the day which was supposed to be for the climbers in the teams turned out to one of the most exhaustive for all and no climber could actually make his mark!! With Team Astana deciding to ease up & letting others do the duty of pacing the race, the AG2R team had to take the responsibility at the front. The peleton maintained order today with all riders deciding to reach the end stage rather than go for glory.
In the end it was a successful break by two riders – Franco Pellizotti of the Liquigas team & Pierrik Fedrigo of the Boutgues team that brought the results. They raced along neck to neck till the very final bend and then the stronger legs of the Frenchman carried him through in the sprint. A thrilling finish to end the first week of racing.
For the record in Stage 9- the Race course was 160.5 kms and the winner was – Pierrik Fedrigo of the Boutgues team from France, the second Stage win for the team after Thomas Voeckler. The individual standings at the top remain the same. The Yellow Jersey remains with Rinaldo Nocentini of the AG2R team from France. Alberto Contador & Lance Armstrong maintain their 2nd & 3rd spots, just 6 & 8 seconds respectively from the top.
The Race has one day off and all the riders will be trying their best to re-energise themselves for the tough week ahead. The Stage 10 will start from the French town of Limoge & end at Issoudun, a relatively flat stretch of 194kms. We will continue to travel ahead of the tour & keep you updated…
Au revoir!!…
Email : mrq@planningfactory.in