Tour de London...er, France

We continue with the week of sports here in London. What an amazing time to be here. We were at Wimbledon on Monday and watched Venus close out her 4th round match. Today in London, Venus went on to win her 4th Wimbledon. Also today in London was one of the Live Earth concerts. We were nowhere near that either. We were in fact across the street from Buckingham Palace, ready for the Prologue of the Greatest Bike Race on Earth, the Tour de France! Here is the map for the Prologue today. We were inside of Green Park, just across the street from the palace (to help with the visual).

We arrived at 1pm hoping to secure a good spot to watch the course. It was pretty incredible. They were expecting 1 million people along the 8 kilometer course watching the race. In light of the recent attempted bombings and all, it was really neat to see how hands off the police and other security were. People were climbing all over fences, walls, and where ever else they could to secure good spots. There was no hassling, they were focused on more important things. And seeing as nothing happened, kudos to London.

So, back on point, we found our spot, about 5 people back, and watched some floats. Very lame, all sponsors. Woo-hoo, bottled water. But we had a good spot (could see the cyclists pretty close from the start, and then very close to the finish) and we hung in there. 3pm on the nose the time trial started. 189 riders, 1 rider per minute. Can I just say, those guys fly! The expected winning time was 9 minutes, and the winner went through in 8:50. For 8 kilometers? That's fast. The downside of these guys being such great athletes, and going so quickly is that the opportunity to actually see a cyclist is pretty much none, they're by so quick. And it's really hard to take a picture (as you can see).












We ended up staying for about an hour, then walked further around to the end of the course, and then went on with our day (did a little shopping, go H&M).

Similarities to Monday at Wimbledon - Get there way before things start (2 hours early for Tour, 6 hours early for Wimbledon), queuing, vendors, athletes in tight clothing, sort of a snooty sport.
Things that were different - Weather, price of admission (free, just show up!), recognition of athletes (can't see anything besides brightly colored spandex), no seats.