Hi all, The Tour de France started in London this year. So of course we (Cheryl was in town for the week) had to be there. We started out in Trafalgar Square where the opening ceremony was held on Friday the 6th of July. We missed that, because of opera plans at Opera Holland Park. We got to see and hear Il barbiere di Siviglia which was brilliant. So this picture was taken on the 7th.
That's the National Gallery behind the TdF screen. I asked Cheryl to pose for a picture, apparently some of the other tourists decided to snap some of her as well. You just don't see that many beautiful Americans in London these days.
The race on Saturday was the Prologue. This was an individual time trial around a very short 7.9km route around central London. We were joined along the route by an estimated 1 million other spectators. Thats Buckingham Palace in the picture below with a multitude of people. We ended up just down the road on the mall to watch the first part of the race.
Two hours before the race they allow the riders to warm up by riding the course at a leisurely speed. This was nice because it gave us a bit more time to actually see them. Unfortunately I can't put names to most of the riders in the pictures below but I figure even if I could most of you would never have heard of them anyway.
About an hour before the race the caravan comes through. These are cars and floats of some of the sponsors of the race. They give out a few trinkets as souvenirs but you really have to be in the right spot to grab them. Unfortunately, they don't say Tour de France on them but I can just write that in later.
Once the race started I realized how inadequate my camera was. There is an awful 2 to 3 second lag before the camera takes the picture. Also I had to just sick the camera out and have it hopefully pointed at the rider. Therefor I have a lot of pictures of the fans near the road as well as team cars but no rider in view. So I was really happy some of the pictures turned out.
About an hour into the race I somehow decided that we had to move. Also I was thirsty and probably had too much sun because if we moved we would never be able to find a spot this close to race. As it turned out the new spot was pretty good, I got into the second row of standing fans and was able to take a few more shots of the riders.
This is Michael Rasmussen (below) who is currently the leader of the race (as of stage 9). He is a great mountain climber and has won the king of the mountains jersey twice. I don't think he will win overall because he's pretty lousy at time trialling but who knows.
Next is my picture of Levi Leipheimer's car and if that fellow in front would have moved his head you would see Levi on his bike. Levi is the leader of Lance's old team now called the Discovery Channel. He has a good shot at victory this year but didn't look very good in the Alps. Still he's only about 4 minutes behind Rasmussen (as of stage 9).
Below is Christophe Moreau of AG2R. He also has a good chance of winning this year. I was amazed this guys hair was the exact distance between bike tire and the front of the car.
That was the end of the photos on Saturday. Sunday (below) was Stage 1 which started out in London. The pictures were taken as the riders were approaching the official start of the race. Still they went by in the blink of an eye. The tour in London drew an estimated 4 million spectators. That's all for now.
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