Viva Lance, Viva Le Tour de France!

Watching on Large Screen near the finishing point, Lance Armstrong cycling into Paris for the final leg

Waiting for the Champions of one of the toughest endurance tests in the world!, to arrive, for the final sprint to Finish, at Champs-Élysées

It's been an amazzzing experience of Le Tour de France, watching Lance Armstrong, the super-athlete demi-god of cycling, in flesh n blood, donning the race leader's yellow maillot jaunne jersey, in action during the finishing stage on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the major thoroughfare where Parisians head for national celebrations, the tree-lined 2.2km long straight cobble-stone road radiating from the Arc de Triomphe. The name Champs-Élysées means "Elysian Fields", the ancient Greek heaven for heroes!- whatta place to crown a True Hero and Champion!. It was thronged by crowd from many parts of the world, with a whole lot of americans to cheer one of their greatest sporting heroes, most have come to France especially for the race. Some were wearing the "Live Strong" yellow arm band of the Lance Armstrong

Avenue des Champs-Élysées : from  end,the Place de la Concorde;  Arc de Triomphe seen at the other end, 2km away. One of the most famous Avenues in the world

Though the planned trip to Paris with friends is for last weekend of Jul, I couldn't resist the pull to be there to experience and capture the moments of the finishing few kilometers of Tour de France. So it turned out to be another solo trip. Had picked a Lonely Planet guide from Surrey library which made the roaming and picking and choosing the spots to go, look sso easy.

I had almost lost that book in a Velo (cycles/cycling accessories) shop when I left it behind and as they were downing the shutters, the sales lady came running to me on the street some 50yards to hand over the book. While at the shop i was talking to her in English and she could speak only French, even the prices, it was interesting :) Later she would get it translated from some other guys there. I bought an electronic speedo-odo-meter with some other features like avg, max speeds, comparison etc. Well, it was one of those gizmo hunting spree times. For sometime, I was in a spell, admiring some €1000+ bikes :). Huh!. In that shop, met a couple Mr and Mrs Pierre, whom I requested for permission to click a pic as she was trying out a cycle. They readily obliged. Sitting on the bike, she was smiling, asking, "why ?, do you think we look like typical French ?". They went curious about my whereabouts. India lit up their face and started asking more. They have French friends who live in Pondicherry. I mentioned to them about the French of Mahe in Kerala which is now a Union Territory and part of Pondicherry administration.

Though with a Lonely Planet for Paris, I couldn't do much of exploring (for that have to wait for one more week for the next trip), since the whole of Sunday was for the race experience and nothing else. Saturday, had plans for going to the city of Saint-Etienne in south-central France for the penultimate day's individual time-trials (which Armstrong won; it is one of only the two stage in which he 'finished' first this year), the plan was busted cos of the lack of time/ sleep, late arrival etc.

Sunday morning. There's overnight rains. Reached Champs-Élysées by 10:30. Ended up buying a whole lot of souvenirs from umbrella, caps, T's, keychains etc.. Canary/yellow was the color of the day, all over the place with people wearing the ponchos, caps, T's and carrying umbrellas while waiting for hours in the drizzle.

Before 9:00 crowd started gathering for kilometers along the Champs-Élysées to get a place next to the pedestrian barrier, though the day's 144km race was to start only at 1:30, from a town CORBEIL-ESSONNES some 80km south of Paris, and the last 50km would be doing 8 laps on Champs-Élysées doing the round-about of Arc de Triomphe at one end. By the time the cyclists finish, they would have covered 3608 km in 21 stages in 3 weeks! (- 9 flat stages, 3 medium mountain stages, 6 mountain stages, 2 individual time-trial stages, 1 team time-trial stage). Gosh, it must be the ultimate endurance test on earth!!

It was very tough, finding a vantage point to shoot and to be able to keep the tripod.
Thankfully, after an hour of reconnaissance mission, got a decent place to view; just to stand- for a while conveniently not thinking about the camera, feeling reasonably ok to get a view a bit angular to the road where we can see the road upto some distance, rather than standing and just staring to the opposite side of the road like most places along the road. Luckily I's next to a generous German pair who had come to Paris to support their hero Jan Ullrich (who reached number three) and the T-mobile team. They were wearing the T-mobile caps of the team-color purple and white. He readily agreed to hold the place for me as I went shopping for souvenirs.
While in queue to buy the souvenirs, watched on big-screen as Lance and mates pedal-pushed to Paris, in the Tour's 21st and final leg, from Corbeil-Essonnes, started as it has done the past six years - with Armstrong in the yellow jersey. Midway through the race, holding a flute of champagne, he toasted teammates as he pedaled into Paris, held up seven fingers, and smiled for the cameras. It was still drizzling. Later, he almost had a mishap when three of his teammates slipped and crashed while negotiating a bend shortly before they crossed the River Seine. Riding behind, Armstrong skidded but stayed in his saddle.
As they entered the city limits, I went back to the place held for me by the German.

But the toughest part was to be able to shoot- The crowd, tree-lined boulevard, and the sheer pace of the cyclists who could reach 60kmph, and the fact that I wanted closer shots with 300mm lense, and to fire in continuous shooting mode (hoping at least 1 in 10 frames might get at least 1 cyclist in it to look for ;) which means have also to attach the cable-release so that I don't touch the camera to click and cause it to shake.. and on top of it all, it was low-light conditions with drizzle, except for the last 3-4 minutes of the race when even the sun decided to have a peek at the podium and Champs-Élysées.
Now I just hope I got the Lance and the discovery team doing the victory lap..

Lance Armstrong and his Discovery Channel team doing the victory lap

Well am waiting for the slide film to get processed, keeping my fingers crossed.

When the race ended, the police cordoned off more than 50m of the area near the finish/podium so that people can only move out of the area and not towards it, couldn't go near to click Lance lifting the trophy for the-7th-year-in-a-row, but could only hear him.. He gave a parting at "the people who don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the skeptics" who suspect that doping is rife in the grueling sport and fueled his dominance....

“I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles. But this is a hell of a race,” he said. “You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I’ll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets — this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it.”

"Vive Le Tour, forever!" he said, arms raised in the air one final time.

...Eiffel,  from Palais de Chaillot