July 14th le Tour!!!

Up at 7.00 a.m. and off to La Motte du Rhone

One of the earlier vehicles in the caravan.

Claire and John do a bit of flag raising.

And there she blows. Many of the team cars or press cars with Australian affiliations saw our flag and called out as they went past. 

Our possie, right on the roundabout. Paul said "they'll slow down a lot through this corner, and we'll get a good view" 

The whole route is marked with these official markers. At the end of the day, a little van arrived and took them all down.

Even the more prominent light posts are padded.

Waiting, waiting, waiting .....

Claire took this artistic interpretation of patriotism.

Claire and John then tried to be patriotic, but John got carried away with the Union Jack. Claire, as you can see, was a star.

Val preparing to attract the attention of the caravan.

Unfortunately, the caravan was running 15 minutes late, and went past at speed. They threw no goodies at us, so there'll be nothing to share when we get home.

Another part of the caravan.

Cathy and Paul near one of the guide arrows.

A BMC support car stopped so we jumped in front of it. Cadel wasn't in it.

At last. Five helicopters appeared.

And then the breakaway. These riders were already 8 minutes ahead of the peleton at this stage.

The leaders of the peleton. I decided I wasn't going to miss this, so I simply held the camera up, with the button depressed, and watched. I was also wrong about the corner. They were going bloody fast.

More ot the peleton. There's Wiggins in yellow.

and more

and more. And then they were gone. It's weird to imagine the roars and cheering continuing down the road, for the next 200 km.
We now had to hurry home to Vinsobres to watch the Tour!