Tour de France 2010

[Stan4dSteph]

Originally Posted by Alex

Out of curiosity, on a normal leg, how much do you actually see? I would assume the vast majority of the pack comes through in just a 10-15 minutes span or is that just a misconception (gah! I just had to rely on spell check to tell me that misperception is not a word; it should be) caused by TV coverage focusing on frontrunners?

Going to a street race in person always seemed kind of like only be able to watch four seconds of the Indy 500. (Not saying there aren't other reasons to see it in person, just curious about that aspect of getting a sense of an actual race.)

That's why I decided to focus on mountain stages and time trials. You get more action spread out over time. Stages that end on a climb string out the pack, and generally the riders are going more slowly past you, although they still go a lot faster than you'd think. The prime spots along the mountain are staked out with campers for a couple of days ahead of time with people from all over. It's a pretty crazy, fun scene. For time trials the riders are spaced out to race against the clock, so you see them come by one at a time.

Before the riders get there, the publicity caravan comes through with the sponsors giving away lots of free stuff.