On tour at Le Tour with West London Cycling

We couldn’t resist a day at the roadside at the Tour de France on Tuesday 5th July as Le Tour was going to Calais, about as near to London as we might expect without it reaching our shores. Hundreds of British riders clearly had the same idea and we saw many on the ferry home, whilst ending up riding with Jack from Rochester who told us there were at least a hundred on his ferry over to Dunkerque that morning.

We arrived the night before and walked the finishing straight in Calais as they were setting it up. The next morning we rode over to the start in Dunkerque to watch the roll out and the caravan before cycling back to watch the finish in Calais …. a great solo victory by Wout Van Aert. As we rode out of Dunkerque the crowds were still at the roadside and cheered and applauded us as we rode past.

As soon as it was over we rode back along the route in Calais, witnessing the barriers, adverts and signs being almost instantly being removed by the crew working on Le Tour. The set up and dismantling of the rolling show is impressive. A great day out.