Watching Tour de France live – Advice please

Hi, I’m planning to go and watch stage 10 of the tour de france tomorrow. My plan is to park at Beon and cycle up the Col du Grand Colombier and watch them arrive at the top. Does anybody know where I can find out when they’ll close the roads, and also about where best to park near Beon? The letour.fr site says the caravan will get to Beon at 14h06 but I assume they’ll shut the road before then

Also any advice from people who’ve done similar would be appreciated, thanks!

If you’re anywhere near, there should big plenty of signs out already saying what the closure times are.

not a 100% sure but i think tomblaine stage 7 was clsoed first thing in the morning cars were banned to allow people to walk up

Never been to watch it live but have read before that they close the roads pretty early.

If you’re anywhere near, there should big plenty of signs out already saying what the closure times are

I’m about an hour’s drive away so there are probably signs up but I won’t see them until it’s too late unfortunately

I’ve visited Le Tour 4 times in person.

Suffice to say they’ll close the roads waaaay early, before you can get there. Our refined (enforced) strategy has been to simply drive to as close as possible and dump the car wherever we can (as does everyone else), then walk to where we want to go.

Taking your bike is a better idea though as you’ll have fun riding up the course a little and can go further, but expect to be flagged down by Police officers and told to get off your bike at least 2hrs before the race comes through, as the Publicity Caravan comes through approx 2-3hrs before the riders.

Sounds a PITA but there is NO substitute for being there in person – experiencing the Tour in all its glory and madness is one of life’s highlights. Part carnival, festival, rock concert, bike race – it is sheer madness – and just brilliant!

It’s a huge sensory smack in the face which leaves you wanting more, more, more. Watching it on TV yesterday my 9yr old son said “Dad, can we go and see it again next year?” That’s my Boy! 😀

They close the roads EARLY – in fact sometimes they even prevent cyclists from going up if it’s too near race arrival time.

We were out there last week. I’m not sure how flat stages compare to the mountains though.

One day we watched from a village mid way along the stage (near the feed station). No problems riding along the route, no barriers and the police seemed fairly relaxed. Obviously not while the caravan came through or just before the race but there were cyclists going through quite happily the rest of the time.

Another day we cycled the last 22k of the stage into St Quentin. One fast bloke shot off and got to within 250m of the finish before being pulled off the route, we went slower and made it to about 4k out. I suspect that we were all pulled off the route about an hour before the caravan came through it’s just that he was further along the road than us by that stage. We then got contradictory instructions from the police – first we were told we could walk our bikes along the route, then a policeman looked at our shoes said we shouldn’t be walking in cleats and we could ride on the pavement. Then we were told not to cycle on the pavement and were sent back onto the road for a bit, and finally we were told to get off the road and cycled the rest of it slowly on the pavement on the other side of the barriers.

Great fun having everyone cheering us as we rode along, and we’re already having thoughts about going back next year.

When I went in 2005 they closed the road at least 3 hours before the caravan arrived

It’s been 10 years since I was at le Tour, but we saw a few stages and the Gendarmerie close the roads when it bloody well suits them, phtmph. (that was a Gallic c’est la vie noise btw).

This can be the day before a stage comes through, if they think there are already too many vehicles on the hill. Esp if it’s a mountain-top finish e.g. one road in one road out.

Ah the memories, sat in a traffic jam for 8 hours trying to get down off the Pyrenees and getting in trouble with BF for chatting up French blokes to cadge cigarettes. And wine. And generally making the best of a bad situation while grumpy folk that had to drive got grumpier.

remember to take enough beer that you think running alongside the riders cheering in your pants is a good idea

Aye, and don’t forget a bucket in the back of the car, for the ladies.

http://www.culoz.fr/img/info-tour.pdf

Road up from Culoz closed from 6am, cycling allowed until 10. Have a great day!

Road closures on the tour are generally 3 hours before the race passes, however on mountain passes and suchlike, the prefet for the departement will order an earlier time.

http://www.culoz.fr/img/info-tour.pdf

Road up from Culoz closed from 6am, cycling allowed until 10. Have a great day!

Road closures on the tour are generally 3 hours before the race passes, however on mountain passes and suchlike, the prefet for the departement will order an earlier time.

Thanks, that was exactly what I was looking for!