3 Länder Tour (Germany)

"3 laender" means three states in South Germany, namely, Hessen,

Baden-Württemberg and Thüringen. Some people have problems
reading some of these alphabets, so maybe I should write them as 'Hessen,
Baden-Wuerttemberg and Thueringen'.

I am going to visit the last and the final stage on 23rd of September.
The stage starts in Nürtingen and finishes in Bad Dürrheim.

Team CSC has posted the list of participating riders. Good members!
Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Lars Bak, Fabian Cancellara, Luke Roberts,
Fränk Schleck and Jens Voigt.

Thursday of that week, 27th of September, Fabian Cancellara will be riding
ITT to defned his World Champion title in Stuttgart. And of course, I will
be there for him and other Team CSC riders.

Anyway, my plan for 23rd is to get there early in the morning (3 a.m.?)
I am not yet sure where to go first. I have to study the parcours. They
don't have the course profile on their official site. I want to be at
"Weilen Unter den Rinnen", where the feed zone is when the race comes.

I think I am going to drive, first, to Weilstetten, where the Mountain Point is
set (892 meters above sea level). Weilstetten is not far from Weilen UdR.

After the race passes, I will probably drive to the finish. I have to study the
course to see if it is possible.


These photos were taken at Stage 14 of TdF 2007.


When Levi Leipheimer came with Carlos Sastre and others, Levi's family and
other Americans ran up along them. The man in the foreground wearing a
T-shirt with '3' is out of breath because he had also run.

The man with "Go Levi" logo on his back is Levi's father and the man in front
of him is Levi's brother Dave. On the road, you can see something is drawn.
It reads, "From Montana with Love" and something that I painted for the
Leipheimers. For that efforts, I got water, beer and sandwich from the
Leipheimers. I look forward to seeing them again next year!

Why are these pictures posted here? It has something to do
with what I am planning to do on 23rd of September at Weilstetten.

Tour de France 2007: The publicity caravan Part XII

Part XII

41. The Sapeurs-Pompiers caravan. Fire fighters?


Sapeures-Pompiers goods: (pictures will be added)


42. The Motorhome Rent caravan.




Motorhome Rent goods: (ditto, leaflets, I think)


43. The Française des Jeux caravan.
Française des Jeux goods: (ditto, I got 'Sandy Casar' lanyard. Could be
other lanyard with other names)


44. The RMC caravan.






RMC goods: (ditto, megaphones and Haribo stuff)


Is this car part of caravan? I don't remember this car well.

This car was part of the caravan but it does not appear in the official list.
This car was there everyday, so it has to be part of it.


Take a look at this CSC and Carlos painting. I did it! A PMU green hand is
on the ground. I am not sure but the blurry objects in the air are two
helicopters. They were hovering the area. One from Police Nationale I think.


45. The Festina caravan.


This car has a Spanish license number?


Here you can see an object in the air. It is a helicopter.




Rain or shine, people say. Look! This girl is smiling when it was chilly or sunny.

Festina goods: (ditto, reflective bands)


These cars (there were other cars following the caravan) were doing the
dirty job. When a automobile had a trouble, these cars would pick it up
and safely carried it to the finish.
So that is it. I will upload the pictures of the goods and comment on them later.

Tour de France 2007: The publicity caravan Part XI

Part XI

37. The Faillitaire caravan. The devil caravan.
Notice that these two vehicles had a different seat arrangement. One
girl sitting on the right and the other left. That means that the front
girl was throwing the "cadeaux" at the people standing on the left of
the road.

The arrangement mentioned above applies to these two cars, too.


Faillitaire goods: (pictures will be added, caps and shopping cart tokens)


38. The Euskaltel Euskadi caravan.


They gave out Basque region travel promotion leaflets with balloons. I often
saw them give, seemingly, their compatriots those leaflets. But did they
need the leaflets?

Euskaltel Euskadi goods: (ditto, sightseeing promotion leaflets and balloons)


39. La Vache qui rit caravan. The smiling cow caravan.
Most of these small parade vehicles were "Smart" underneath.











La Vache qui rit goods: (ditto, fridge magnets and the cheese)


40. The Eco-Emballages caravan.








I find this picture very beautiful.

Eco-Emballages goods: (None, since their message was NOT to litter the
street. How disappointing but appropriate!)

Tour de France 2007: The publicity caravan Part X

Part X

34. The Gendarmarie Nationale caravan. They are the officers who were taking
care of the traffic detours and everything.

Notice that the cars are arriving in their license number order, 778, 779, 780
and 781. Remember this.









The message they were promoting, "Passe ton Permis Pieton avec Gendy".
Please refer to (http://www.permispieton.com/).

Police Nationale goods: (pictures will be added)


35. The Caisse d'Epargne caravan. ?These two cars arrived in the reverse
order of their license number, 3873 and then 3872.





Caisse d'Epargne goods: (ditto, the squirrels)


36. Aujourd'hui caravan.


Aujourd'hui goods: (ditto, their paper)