Watching the final of the tour de France in paris was a little surreal. There were more people wearing white shirts with red polka dots than I can ever remember seeing in one place, and the crowds along the champs-elysees were at least twice the size of the crowds for the Bastille day parade on the 14th.

Apparently, since they have to pretty much close down half of downtown Paris for the race, the Mayor hosts a lap of the course starting at 8:30AM for all the wannabes. Everyone came with their fancy bike, their yellow jerseys, and did a lap, led by Big Mig, Migiel Indurain, the last 5 time winner of the tour, this would be the equivalent of letting a bunch of overweight, middle-aged guys play a little touch football on the field of the superbowl the morning of the big game. It must be like a dream come true for the diehards that participated.

I started out from IRCAM at about 1:30, knowing that the race was to start about 2PM, and hoping to make it to the Arc de Triomphe to watch the race. As it turned out, I could have watched the first 3 laps from the Rue De Rivoli, two blocks from IRCAM. Had I bothered to buy a copy of l¹Equipe, I would have known what the route was, and when the peleton was to be where, but I¹m at newbie at these things.

2PM rolled around and I was on the Cours Albert, so I stopped and watched as car after car of official looking people rolled by. 2:15, no tour. Finally, about 2:25 official looking motorcycles, and some team cars roll into view, followed by the peloton, rolling at a very lesurely pace, and then a long, long stream of team cars with extra bikes, wheels, mechanics, wives and girlfriends of the riders. This is followed by more gendarmes on motorcycles, a tow truck (in case one of the tour vehicles breaks down?), and the official ³fin de cours² police van.

To my left on the fence were a couple of americans who were psudo- experts. They had bought the l¹Equipe, they knew which way riders would be going and where. On my right was a british couple. He obviously was interested in the bikers, she could care less, and had brought along the British edition of Cosmo, and was thumbing through the article on how to spice up your sex life between laps. I couldn¹t help but smile and read over her shoulder as she read about the pros and cons of ping-pong paddles.

In the second pass, the peloton had broken up into two groups, but they still weren¹t really racing. They men on my left departed for another part of the course, and I decided that if they knew what they were doing, I should leave as well. I walked over to the Champs-Elysees, and up to the Arc, and in the half-hour it took me, I don¹t think I missed anything. The Champs was full of people. Parked on the sidewalk were the ³official² race support vehicles that were selling the ³official² newspapers, magazines, and tee shirts of the tour. A loudspeaker alternated blasting American rock music and updates on what was going on with the race. It became clear where the riders were by watching where the two helicopters used for race coverage were hovering.

The classic photo of the tour two years ago was of Marco Pantani circling Paris on the last day with the Arc in the background. ³I want a shot like that² I thought, but to my surprise, the racers don¹t actually go around the Arc, but instead they simply double back on the other side of the Champs just shy of the Place Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc is located. To get the award winning shot, you need to stand in the middle of the Champs, which is easy to do if you have press credentials, but not so easy if you don¹t. Oh well, it turned out to be a nice place to watch from, as you could see up and down the Champs, and the racers had to slow down to make the U-turn at the end of the road.

It was a warm day in Paris, and the sun was shining, people brought ladders to stand on, and stood shoulder to shoulder 4 or 5 deep along the stretch I was at. Going to a public event in Paris is one of the times I appreciate being 6¹4² in a crowd of 5¹8² people. I didn¹t arrive early to save my place, but I could still see just fine.

There were 8 laps around the champs to finish the race. A 4 man breakaway led by Durrant, who has been on the attack the whole three weeks was out in front by about 20 seconds for a couple of laps, then there was a solo attack by one of the french riders, but by the time they came around for the final lap, it was pretty much one big bunch, with the Deutch Telekom group getting themselves in position to get their sprinter, Eric Zabel in position for the sprint. They blew it in the last straightway, however, and Stephano Zanini slipped by him. Oops! At least Telekom had a stage win the day before. They¹ve been 2nd 6 times in this tour!

There was a victory lap of all the teams after the awards ceremony, but I was tired of standing, and standing still for so long, so I walked home. The great thing about cycling is that you can get within 3 meters of the faces you¹ve been seeing in interviews and on TV for three weeks, the hard part is that even in a criterion situation, you have to wait 15 minutes for them to come back again, where you¹ll see them for another 10 seconds. It was a great adventure after watching the tour on ESPN for so many years, but next time I¹d like to be sitting somewhere comfy while watching.