Le Tour de France 2013 – Stage 21: Versailles > Paris Champs-Élysées, 118km. Marcel Kittel Wins a Fourth

Marcel Kittel won today, but yesterday, Saturday night, was sore – 4.5 hours on the road after the race then straight into the best of two falls or a submission with the motel wi-fi. However a chance meet with the night porter and we were ‘in’ on the staff password – words and pics all safely on their way.

We realised a dream yesterday; our very own barbie on a mountainside – it was just ‘the biz’.

We had a wee bit of a ‘stramash’ with some Belgian journos who practically parked on our bonnet – but in the interests of EU harmony we bunged them a sausage and a kebab off the barbie and harmony reigned.

The drive after the stage was over wasn’t ‘the biz’ though – all those hours up the ‘Autoroute Du Soleil.’

We were lucky to drive it in the evening – during the holiday season when it’s busy, it’s lethal, largely due to just about everyone ignoring the speed limit and the insane tail-gating which is standard practice on continental roads.

When we looked out of our F1 window in the morning, we saw that our car had been abandoned, rather than parked – we were tired boys.

But here we are, Sunday morning, the sun is shining and shortly we’ll be off to the start to drive the stage into The City of Light.

The F1 motel next door has a special guest – the Credit Lyonais leon.

We caught him early, before he had his fur coat on – I hope it makes past the censor…

…and to use that journalistic device, fast forward 24 hours to Monday morning.

* * *

We’re now on the A115 heading north to Beauvais and the airport giving Radio Nostalgi it’s last airing for a while.

The sounds were good, yesterday – ‘Oh Happy Day‘ just as we entered Paris to watch Marcel Kittel the the win…

Perfect.

Paris was hot but not nearly as busy as usual – I can’t comment on the Champs because we didn’t go up there – but along the Quai and in the tribunes there was plenty of room – most unusual.

My personal view is that whilst the twilight timing may be great for the tele it means that many locals didn’t show.

With the race finish nearer 22:00 hours it meant you wouldn’t be home ’til wearing on for midnight.

Too late, if you have kids.

En route the Versailles depart the moto gendarmes hurtled past us – pulling neat three-up very tight TTT’s at big speeds on open roads.

From Versailles we drove the parcours, well in advance of the race, that gave us plenty of time to take in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles.

Because we were there before the madness, the police and officials checked our accreditation but were relaxed about us driving around the course and stopping to take pictures.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, 50 years in the building, 700 rooms, 67 staircases, 352 fireplaces, tree lined drives which go on forever, ornamental lawns, a vast man-made lake in the shape of a cross (the Grand Canal).

It’s vast and very beautiful – or a hideous over indulgence which illustrates why the French Revolution came as no surprise…

You choose.

After the palace, the parcours were pretty un photogenic until we reached Paris – and much diminished roadside spectators.

It’s always a thrill though when you take the road along the Seine and get your first view of the Eiffel Tower.

The approach was different, this year and involved us crossing the Seine three times instead of the usual once – inspiring total traffic melt down.

The French do like to toot their horns.

But eventually we made it to the underground car park just off the Place de la Concorde.

We photographed many of the big sights on the way in – the Eiffel Tower, Liberty, Les Invalides, the book stands by the Seine, the glass pyramid at the Louvre, the Joan of Arc statue, the Rivoli Ferris wheel, the river traffic on the Seine and the obelisk on the Champs Elysees.

The GreenEdge bus was navigating a delicate path through one of the Louvre’s arches when we passed – one mega Euro fine per Tour is enough, thank you.

We split up, Martin setting off to take the race pics whilst I sniff around the bus park.

Crash victim, Marcus Sieberg was around and about the Lotto bus – still strapped up from his crash.

Whilst the Saxo car wasn’t looking it’s usual cool self – not on the back of a recovery wagon…

Over at Lotto the champagne party was in full effect with Marc Sergeant enjoying a chat and glass of champers – distributed by a striking looking young blonde lady.

Meanwhile, Rolf Aldag pressed the sponsor’s flesh.

The QuickStep bus party was a belter, too – with Ms. Cav and Cav junior on hand.

I bolted when one of the team staff pounced on a TV crew for taking pictures of Cav junior but not of any of the team’s four wins…

And I saw a thing today which I’ve never seen before – a rider ‘chucking it’ on the Champs.

Vacansoleil’s Dutch TT champion rode into the bus park with not many laps to go – his face was like thunder.

The party line is that he was ‘sick’ – somehow I had the feeling it was more a mental than physical situation.

Apparently it was 1977 when a rider last abandoned on the final stage – Eddy Merck’s big right hand man, Jos Bruyere of Belgium.

Meanwhile, out on the circuit, David Millar put on a show, initially with Juan Antonio Flecha but then, ‘en seule.‘

The Scot was ‘up the road’ for a total of 31 kilometres on the day.

We think that perhaps it was David’s ‘farewell’ to the Tour – just a feeling we get from some of his Tweets…

Cav could have no complaints about his lead out – Chava, Kwiatkowski, Martin, Trentin, Steegmans were all there.

But one thing I did notice is that the ‘Missile’ did have a problem in the closing metres – either he spun a wheel on a road marking dampened by a discarded bottle, hit a bump in the road making his rear wheel skip, or he slipped a gear.

His wee legs spun a couple of low resistance revs before he gained traction, again.

Over at the Argos bus it was joy unbridled – on the eve of the stage, big Marcel Kittel did say he’d would win it.

The Argos boys have made a science of the lead outs and it’s certainly paid off.

But most of all, the night was about Christopher Froome.

However, we’re not sure about the wee reflective specs on the maillot jaune to make it sparkle under the lights.

Veering a wee bit too much towards the Liberace Show for our tastes.

Already, certain elements are referring to Froome as a; “plastic Brit,” like Greg Rusedski the tennis player.

You just can’t please some folks…

And I guess if I was David Brailsford, I’d look self satisfied too, when giving interviews – in just his fourth Tour he’s won half of them with two different riders.

Impressive stuff.

His team deserve their long lay, today.

They’ll be sharing €525,690 – Lampre came away with just €11,180 to split between nine riders and staff for three weeks of 16 hour days.

Quintana was the revelation – a stage, second on GC, Best Young Rider and King of the Mountains.

Very, very impressive.

Already the papers are saying he’ll win in 2015 – I’m not sure how they work that one out.

There are many ambushes for the wee chap to avoid – pressure, signing for big bucks for the wrong team, fast cars and faster women…

The last ‘pure’ climber to win le Tour was Pantani in 1998 and before that it was Van Impe in 1976.

I’d maybe wait a wee bit before getting the tattoo done…

Rodriguez was impressive too; after an uninspired start to the race he battled hard in the last week and only made the podium on the penultimate day.

Sagan, in green is cool, the sport needs showmen and he’s all of that.

It wasn’t a disastrous year for the French – but nor was it great.

Christophe Riblon’s stage win was beautiful and with Peraud crashing out in the mountain time trial – whilst in ninth place – his team mate Romain Bardet is best ‘Gaul’ in 15th spot.

Riblon was also the leading ‘baroudeur‘ of the race – my favourite translation of the word is ‘brawler’ – spending 646 kilometres ‘up the road.’

That’s somewhere between three and four stages worth of kilometres.

Riblon, Bardet and Peraud are all AG2R men it should be noted and the team were second in the overall team standings.

Last year, Rolland was eighth and French riders won five stages whilst in 2011 Rolland had his beautiful win on L’Alpe and Voeckler was fourth.

In 2010 Gadret was best with 18th but the home nation did win six stages, including two from Chava.

L’Équipe shares our view that AG2R gave sponsors and fans value for money and that Sojasun tried like bears on a limited budget and honoured the race.

But Cofidis were invisible, Europcar weak and FDJ.fr lost heart when Pinot quit.

But let’s not forget the lanterne rouge, GreenEDGE’s big Canadian ‘chrono man,’ Svein Tuft. He was 4:27 down – that’s an entire stage.

And the awards that really matter;

• Most popular with the Press, ‘Prix Orange‘: Froome.
• Least popular with the Press, ‘Prix Citron‘ (Lemon): Cav.

That’s our boy!

We hope you enjoyed our Tour coverage, we enjoyed bringing it to you – mostly – and if P.G.T.S.D. [Post Grand Tour Stress Disorder] kicks in then remember that the Vuelta will be along before you know it.

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Results - Le Tour de France 2013 – Stage 21: Versailles > Paris Champs-Élysées