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| My official pass |
Today was a very exciting day.
Today the Tour du Poitou-Charentes came to our little village. It took control
of our roads and blasted through in a horn honking, blur of noise and colour
and it was great fun to be a small part of it as a marshal.
We had a brief meeting in the
morning to collect our passes, decide our positions and as a bonus collect a
picnic lunch provided by the mairie. We had to be in position at 12.30pm, about
an hour and half before the cyclists were due to arrive to ensure the roads were
clear for the publicity caravanne that passes an hour beforehand. I picked
quite a busy junction on the way out of the village and by the time we had to
shut it completely I had a small traffic jam behind me and was feeling quite
important.
However when the official
marshals sped into the village, jumped off their motorbikes, unrolled their
yellow flags and got out their whistles, they slightly took the edge off my
role. It was amazing how tiring it was to spend two hours trying to be
responsible and communicate with French drivers who were being delayed, but I
still managed to take a few pictures.
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| A real marshal with a flag |
This is the Poitou-Charentes cow
who always heads the convoy before the cyclists. When you see him arriving you
know the action is not far behind.
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| The lead car |
It is common to have a breakaway
group of cyclists who form a small bunch ahead of the main peloton quite early
on in the race. We were an hour into the race and this group were just over
five minutes in front of the main group.
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| The breakaway |
I didn’t manage to take any photos
of the main peloton, however my friend Karine, who was also a marshal on the
run into the village managed these two fantastic pictures, merci ma belle.
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| The peloton approaches our village |
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| The team car convoy |
This great shot of the peloton
whizzing throught the middle of the village was taken by Ed who was helping Ade
at his marshal point at the end of our road.
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| The peloton in the village |
It was great fun to be involved
and to see the village in a different light and I even managed to pick a few
freebies, including a AG2R Mondiale multi-coloured pen. Lucky me!
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| My freebies |
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