July 3rd finally arrived - The Prologue. Took the family to the Düsseldorf airport to pick up a jet-lagged Chuck and Kelly and drove straight to Rotterdam. Now I must admit, as excited as I was to finally get a chance to attend Le Tour in person, I did not have a lot of high expectations about watching the Prologue. While for some masochistic reason I actually enjoy time-trialing, watching them does not really stoke my race spectating flame. Nonetheless, this was the start of Le Tour and being only a 2.5 hr drive from where I live, there was no question about whether to attend or not.As we arrived a couple of hours prior to the start, we found all prime spectating spots taken and the crowds were very large. Given there was only 8k of viewing opportunities, the best spots were reserved for VIPs, which unfortunately, we were not. So large crowds coupled with being underdressed for cool temps, lots of wind, and rain (it was sunny, warm, and calm when we left) made the 2 hour wait for the start a little difficult. We did find a decent spot on the Willemsbrug (bridge), but by the time race officially started we were cold, wet, and hungry. We watched about the first 10 or so go by us, then we decided the hotel seemed like a better option for watching the remaining 2+ hours. So that is what we did and without regrets.
After the race, the hotel was a flurry of activity with various race participants from the pre-race caravan in attendance. Most notably was the PMU group - sponsors of the Green Jersey. Our hotel was filled with college-age, 20 somethings whose Tour was also just starting. This was the first of 20 more days whereby they would be in the Tour Caravan (which generally precedes the riders by 1 hour or so) pelting fans with PMU swag for 4+ hours a day.
In fact, after few adult sodas, Chuck and I decided to inspect the race caravan vehicles in the hotel parking lot. Here is Chuck, making sure the hood of the Vittel car was structurally sound for the next day's festivities.
Bis später
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