You don’t need to be a cycling fan to enjoy the Tour de France. I mean, it helps, but the three-week race is often spectacle enough.
Broadcasts of the race draw up to 15 million viewers around the world. But if you’d rather get in the thick of the action, here are some tips for checking out the world’s most famous cycling race live.
- Book early. It may be a little late for this advice, but give it a go anyway. The course route is available. Keep in mind the Tour riders and crew will have most likely booked out the start and finish towns and anything close by, so look for places along the route. If you’re considering going next year for the 100th edition, start researching now. Corsica will host the start so that gives you something to go on.
- Hire a car. Aside from a couple of stages such as the finale in Paris, the course stays outside major cities. A car will give you freedom to see some stages in beautiful settings, with hopefully less crowds. Can’t afford to? Try heading to Liege for the prologue and start of stage 1, or the finish in Paris.
- Vary your views. If you have the chance to see multiple stages, vary what you see. Check out a start, a finish and enjoy waiting in the middle of nowhere.
- Be prepared to wait. And wait. Getting a good spot to view the race means arriving early and staking your claim. On mountain stages the road will be lined with RVs and tents from early the day before the race is due to come through. On average, spectators wait about six hours for Le Tour action.
- Be as self-sufficient as possible. If you’re heading out for a day on the course, pack your lunch and supplies such as water, hats etc. You won’t risk missing the action by waiting in line for a crepe plus in some places, there won’t be much there. The riders are travelling through a lot of countryside so don’t expect a McDonalds to be close by and you can’t survive off the freebies from Haribo.
- Freebies from Haribo? That’s right. Lots and lots of freebies from lots and lots of companies. The Tour de France caravan is one of the highlights of seeing the Tour live. The 40-kilometre parade of sponsorship vehicles precedes the riders and throw out free stuff. We’re talking T-shirts, hats, candy, flags, posters, washing liquid, pens…anything a company feels like putting their name on.
- Mountain stages are tricky. There’s rarely more than one road through some of those hills and that’s what the tour will be travelling on. That means it’s blocked off very early in the day, if not the night before. Keen followers will travel up a day in advance and camp in a tent or their RV, so parking spaces can disappear early.
- Most of those vehicles by the road arrive the day before the race.
- Be flexible. Even the best-laid plans can come undone. Crowds and traffic is hard to predict so be prepared to make last-minute changes if needed. Also, don’t leave with anywhere to be in a hurry. It takes a while for everyone to clear out after a stage. Find a cafe, have a drink, then hit the road.
