Sunday 8th July, in the evening, I was in Dunkerque. I checked in a
camping site (practically) on the beach. When I arrived at Dunkerque,
the sun was still high. It had been a long time since I last saw the ocean.
I guess the last time I saw the sea was two years ago (2005).
I took my bike out and cruised along the beach. There was a nice stretch
of sidewalk along the beach (about 2km?). It has bicycle lanes. The camping
site was at the end of the stretch. The beach reminded me of that of my
home town and Venice beach (California, U.S.A.). The popular section of
the beach was just like well-known beach in California.
This is the beach. Some swim, others put on thick clothes. This section
was the end of the stretch and was a bit quiet.
Did I write somewhere here that I had lived in California for about 3 years?
For about one year I lived in Santa Monica.
I saw some team buses and cars (Lampre-Fondital and others) on the
way to Dunkerque. I guess they had left the Great Britain (Dover) by
ferry and just landed on Dunkerque (or Calais?). Their transportation
was supposedly provided by SeaFrance, one of the publicity caravan
participants.
In Belgium (and in Dunkerque, France), I had two Belgium stations on
my DVB TV set. They, in turns, broadcast the Tour de France, from
start to finish. In Germany, they show only the last two hours (or so)
of each stage. Apparently, cycling sport has more audience in Belgium.
The next day, I drove to the start. It rained and later cleared. I had a
flat on my rear wheel. The start was by the sea, a canal or some water
body.
This is the man wearing the yellow jersey that day. This was taken
just beside the Team CSC bus.
After seeing off the Team CSC riders, I immediately drove to the ravitaillement.
Slijpe (MIDDELKERKE)
By the time I reached Slijpe (should be read "sly-pay"), half of the publicity
caravan had passed. For convenience's sake I abbreviate publicity caravan as
PC in my blog. There were a lot of people along the course. As I did not
know where the debut and fin of the ravitaillement, I had to ask someone.
I asked an elderly man, "Do you speak English?" In my experience, almost
everybody in Belgium speaks English and they are good at it. The man turned
out to be an Englishman with his wife beside him. Of course, he spoke
English and we talked a while while waiting for the PC to pass. I could
not move to the ravitaillement while the PC is passing.
Fabian Cancellara (out of focus) is passing in front of me. It is easy to
spot this yellow jersey in the peloton.
The woman in dark clothes is bending over to see what type of tyre or wheel
Stefan Schumacher had that day. ... NOT! She is bending over for a bidon.
That is what everybody wanted. That is exactly why so many people were there.
Do you see the significance of this photo? Can you see the unidentified
flying object, in other words U.F.O., in the air? I will make it easy
for you to see it.
I did not intend to capture this moment. It just happened.
Do you see it now? Call NASA! It is a new type of U.F.O.!
I hope this bidon was empty and landed on the turf or road without
hurting anybody. I later learned that a bidon with liquid inside was
dangerous.
I did not get anything. A bidon discarded by Jens Voigt came to
my direction but it flew through between the legs of a man standing
next to me and landed in a ditch along the course and was picked up
by somebody else.
After the ravitaillement, I drove to the finish. I could not arrived at the
finish in time to see the sprint. I saw the finish on TV, instead.
After the race, I drove to Waregem. I checked in a camping site not
far from Waregem, the start of Stage 3. This is a typical race watch day in
Belgium or Holland, where one can often watch 3 points in a stage/race
thanks to the well-developed traffic system in these countries.
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