In caravan and with caravan… this is how this has been lived start of Tour with Italian flavour, with different fans, with different customs to the French ones, which hopefully will not change in the future. Because the Tour is born in France, it is done in Italy or in Barcelonain two years, it will still be a mass phenomenon, thousands of people who come to the race to experience it and get to know it beyond their passion for cycling, because what really matters, above the bikes and their protagonists, is the spectacle that surrounds the race and that, in fact, is created by the fans themselves.
In a caravan we go to Tour by road and with those illustrious white things that are mobile homes, which move slowly especially when ascending through a pass in the Alps that arrive in just two days, something never seen with a Galibier which was always reserved for the hot moment of the test and not like the aperitif that Italians have around 6 in the afternoon with their Aperol or proseco while they fool the stomach with any minimal delicacy.
A parking lot like a soccer field
They are the same ones that surprise many Tours that they carry on their backs when it comes to negotiating the Tour finish line in Rimini with the car. In an open field, just two kilometers from the arrival, there is an immense parking lot, like a soccer field full of motorhomes arriving from all over, although mainly from France to live live the biggest day in the sporting life of Romain Bardetthe smiling boy with a face like he’s never broken a plate, the one desired by all French people and who at 33 years old has fulfilled the dream of wearing the most precious jersey in world cycling, yellow, of course.
Hundreds of caravans have been travelling around the Tour since the end of June and throughout July, regardless of the countries through which the race passes, mainly France and, from time to time, like now, its neighbours to the north, east, south and west. They arrive at the finish line, park where they are allowed, put up the flags of their admired team or of the place they represent, a French country or region, and off they go to enjoy the Tour, the riders whom they barely see, maybe 30 seconds if they are in a peloton. grouped at 40 per hour.
Then comes the night, time to share the beer and barely sleep with the noise of the open-air discos that roam freely along the beach of Rimini until late at night.
A stormy transfer
And it is also time to remember the most stormy transfer of the Tour in memory, between Florence, where fans overflow the limited area of the race, and Rimini, crossing the Tuscany and the Emilia-Romagna along a highway with lanes closed for construction work, even though it is Saturday and there is no construction worker in sight, and an army of cars advancing slowly, when they can, to the positions of the hammocks and the beaches, which are almost always paid for.
Some motorhomes arrive in Rimini with hardly any time to witness the glory of The bardwith almost no time for lunch and to imagine more than to see what the victory of the first stage was like.
At night, with the sound of unwanted music, exhausted by the transfer, the caravaners will make plans for the future, for a future that will end on July 21st in A string and not in Parisbut which includes a visit to the Alps and the Pyrenees and above all the opportunity to get addresses of campsites or simply areas on the roads where you can park your motorhome and, finally, witness the passing of the advertising cars preceding the peloton and then the arrival of the stars on their fast bicycles. But stop the music, it’s time to sleep!
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2024-06-30 07:19:26
#Tour #caravan #Province
