We got up early in the morning, had breakfast and drove to Pinerolo. Only about 85km from Briancon but almost 2 hours. Just like the cyclists do, we had to navigate mountain ascents and switchbacks, tunnels and hairy corners. The drive out of Briancon is a beautiful climb to 1800m that I would have love to have rode on my bike but just ran out of time. Then we go through the village of Sestreire in Italy topping out at 2000m and then its all downhill to Pinerolo around 300m above sea level. We make it, park our car and walk about 2k to the start area.
All the roads are closed off with barriers lining them so it is easy to figure out where the start is, just follow the course. It gets crowded at the finish - the front of the area is the Leopard Trek and Movistar team buses. We hang out here a bit, but it is very crowded. My girls get an autograph from Rui Costa, winner of stage 12 to Super-Besse.
Here he is with some gals. Eventually he has to coochie-coo the dog before he can get to racing.
We decide to head down the line to the HTC bus. I figure it is going to be packed with people waiting to see Cav but maybe just because it is further away from the start there is hardly anyone there which is awesome. We get lots of room up against the barriers and get to see some movie stars ;-)I have the DVD of Chasing Legends - a cycling documentary following the HTC team in the 2009 Tour de France. Together with my family we must have watched it 10+ times so are super familiar with all the players. Along with Cavendish the team directors Brian Holm and Rolf Aldag got a lot of camera time in the movie and were likeable and funny.
So it was awesome to see both of them there and they were both nice enough to chat and sign autographs for my girls.
Here Rolf comes over to sign after my wife calls him over in German. They seem enthused that we are big fans of the movie.
Brian comes over later after chatting with some guy from Sky and is also super nice. I talk to him about todays stage and tell him I loved his line in the movie during one of the mountain stages where he says "Some days I wish I was still a professional cyclist........but not today!"
Todays stage is definitely one of those.
Brian brings over some hats for my kids - Sweeet!!
Highroad fans for life!
Later on, Mark Renshaw a.ka. Prince Harry emerges and is happy to talk to the fans and sign authographs. He appears a little smaller than I thought considering he is such a workhorse.
Super Nice guy.
Interesting seeing a guy with an Ironman Canada hat there too.
The entire time riders were going back and forth and eventually to the start line so I snapped pics of many of them. The teams with buses at the front I didn't get.Phillipe Gilbert
Alberto Contador & convoy
Sammy Sanchez who had a great tour
Badass Laurens ten Dam
World Champ and multiple stage winner Thor Hushovd. He had lots of supporters as Norway was well represented. I probably saw more Norway flags than any other country
The Yellow Jersey - Voeckler looks like he is lauching an attack.
Ryder Hesjedal playing it cool
Hanging out at the start was very enjoyable, the teams and riders pretty approachable. It was a great time and I am glad we made the effort to get over there as it was not super easy.
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