Day 7 Tour De France
Here it is the last day of our trip and the day Lance wins number 7. We got up late and missed the ride on the Champ Elleesy. We spent to much time and energy walking everywhere yesterday. After breakfast I went with a couple of other people from our group and walked to a souvenir stand. We waited for about 30 minutes in the rain to be able to get some cool Tour things. It was raining off and on the entire morning. After walking back to the hotel Jodi and I decided to go out for some more things, this was our last day to shop. We were walking up the Champs Elleesy heading for the Arc De Triumph and I noticed a couple standing with two Trek bikes in neon yellow rain jackets and without hesitation blurted out Jim and Kim. We ran into Jim and Kim Griffin from Tampa in the middle of Paris and millions of people. We talked with them for at least an hour and got caught up on their travels. They went to Germany on June 27th and rented a RV, drove to France, and have followed the tour to different areas for the entire month. They even competed in a one day race that covers one of the stages in the tour. During breakfast they even got to talk to John Kerry about the race and their travels. This was a wonderful treat to be able to find them. We had their phone number and wanted to get in touch with them, but between our travels from town to town and my cell not working and fear of trying to use a phone we never called them.
We parted ways and went out for some lunch before heading over to the Automobile club, where we would be watching the final stage.
At 1 pm our group headed out for a 25 minute walk to our viewing area. We walked by several Embassy's from around the world and the Automobile club was next door to the US Embassy. Security was tight. We had two floors reserved for about 300 Trek and Discovery people. One floor had a huge balcony and the other floor had big windows looking out onto the course. We had a great view of the Eiffel tour and all the team buses were parked directly in front of us. There was a huge jumbo TV out in one of the turns and a lot of TV's throughout our two floors, so we had snacks and watched the race work it's way towards Paris. Lance was getting way to much film coverage, it looked like there were more motorcycles filming than riders riding. It was scary several times looking like there would be a crash. As they got near Paris several of the Discovery riders went down in a turn on the slick roads, Lance and his mountain biking skills avoided a crash and they had a good laugh after everyone was up and ok.
The race entered into Paris and they rode by us on several laps around the Champs Elleesy. There were a few more crashes, but no one was injured. After the finish they had several ceremonies for the different jersey winners and the best team. We decided to go into the, pits, or team bus area and walk around. We were with one of tour guides from Hawaii named Shannon. Her and her husband were there, she was with a Trek Travel group doing a trip and he was visiting from London. We walked up to the Phonak bus and she asked if Floyd was there and the guy says sure I'll get him for you. Floyd came out with champagne in hand and we started chatting with him like we had known him for years. It is nice to see that the riders are very accessible and friendly. The Discovery bus had a couple of hundred of people crowded around, we hung out there for a few minutes and got a couple of pictures and then decided to walk around and see other people. We got several other good pics and had a great time hanging out. We walked back to the hotel and decided to go out for some dinner. We found a small little family restaurant a few blocks from the hotel and had a nice meal. After that we went to the room packed up everything and hit the bed. We fly out at 12:20pm on Monday.
The pictures are up on the website, in order to get to them on the home page simply click on the large landscape picture of all the mountain bikers at the top of the page and that will take you to our picture page. The tour pictures are the top item.
We hope that you enjoyed reading about our adventure and highly recommend to anyone a Trek Travel trip. When you sign up for a trip and mention that you found out about the trip from Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium you will get a $200 credit in our shop. We have brochures here on all there trips which range from wknd getaways to the California wine country to 10 day trips to New Zealand. They are worth every penny.
Lastly I want to say thank you to all of you for helping us earn this trip of a lifetime and thank you to Dan and Andrew who invited us to go. Trek is a great American company that knows how to take care of it's staff, and customers. THANK YOU
We parted ways and went out for some lunch before heading over to the Automobile club, where we would be watching the final stage.
At 1 pm our group headed out for a 25 minute walk to our viewing area. We walked by several Embassy's from around the world and the Automobile club was next door to the US Embassy. Security was tight. We had two floors reserved for about 300 Trek and Discovery people. One floor had a huge balcony and the other floor had big windows looking out onto the course. We had a great view of the Eiffel tour and all the team buses were parked directly in front of us. There was a huge jumbo TV out in one of the turns and a lot of TV's throughout our two floors, so we had snacks and watched the race work it's way towards Paris. Lance was getting way to much film coverage, it looked like there were more motorcycles filming than riders riding. It was scary several times looking like there would be a crash. As they got near Paris several of the Discovery riders went down in a turn on the slick roads, Lance and his mountain biking skills avoided a crash and they had a good laugh after everyone was up and ok.
The race entered into Paris and they rode by us on several laps around the Champs Elleesy. There were a few more crashes, but no one was injured. After the finish they had several ceremonies for the different jersey winners and the best team. We decided to go into the, pits, or team bus area and walk around. We were with one of tour guides from Hawaii named Shannon. Her and her husband were there, she was with a Trek Travel group doing a trip and he was visiting from London. We walked up to the Phonak bus and she asked if Floyd was there and the guy says sure I'll get him for you. Floyd came out with champagne in hand and we started chatting with him like we had known him for years. It is nice to see that the riders are very accessible and friendly. The Discovery bus had a couple of hundred of people crowded around, we hung out there for a few minutes and got a couple of pictures and then decided to walk around and see other people. We got several other good pics and had a great time hanging out. We walked back to the hotel and decided to go out for some dinner. We found a small little family restaurant a few blocks from the hotel and had a nice meal. After that we went to the room packed up everything and hit the bed. We fly out at 12:20pm on Monday.
The pictures are up on the website, in order to get to them on the home page simply click on the large landscape picture of all the mountain bikers at the top of the page and that will take you to our picture page. The tour pictures are the top item.
We hope that you enjoyed reading about our adventure and highly recommend to anyone a Trek Travel trip. When you sign up for a trip and mention that you found out about the trip from Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium you will get a $200 credit in our shop. We have brochures here on all there trips which range from wknd getaways to the California wine country to 10 day trips to New Zealand. They are worth every penny.
Lastly I want to say thank you to all of you for helping us earn this trip of a lifetime and thank you to Dan and Andrew who invited us to go. Trek is a great American company that knows how to take care of it's staff, and customers. THANK YOU
posted by CBE Staff at 9:09 PM
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