Champs Eleysees Tour de France Guide

Me and my family made the trip to the Champs Eleysees this year to see the Tour de France. As I couldn't find any detailed guides s here is what I single handedly found out. I would also like to say that circumstances and events may be different in different years so always ask at information desks to check.

Travel

The first hurdle is travelling to the race. We went on the train and the metro to the champs. It was relatively low cost and the scenery was beautiful on the way into Paris. Our trip was about 30 mins long and the train was very comfortable and easy to use.

The metro is easy too. Our train tickets were conveniently compatible with the metro and it let you through the metro gates all day. 

On the metro we went from Montanas to the Champs Eleysees metro station. Route 13. There are a couple of metro stations along the Champs Eleysees. And they Gordon the top to the arc d'triomphe.

Some Metro Stations do close so don't just rely on one metro station. 

The Champs Eleysees station come out on the opposite side to the finish and there is a big screen to your right. This screen can just be seen from really far down.

Also note that some metro stations can be used to get to the other side of the course.

Timings

You will need to cross reference train and Tour de France CARAVAN times to get there at the right time, add and hour or two of leeway and time to get the perfect spot. (I will come on to that later.) Also find out when the women's is on and plan accordingly. The women's race is really good fun and totally gets you in the mood to watch this glorious race. 

I recommend the Tour de France app which has live updates or following the tour on Twitter so that you know when the riders will appear.

Where to watch

If your getting there early you will be able to find a good spot. With a bit of searching on course. You will want to be on the barriers so bring flags (they can be Gaffer taped to the barriers) and be prepared to camp out. On the barriers is the place to be so be prepared to defend your position to those who have turned up later than you. The tour is amazing for bringing people who you wouldn't have met to one place so try to talk to people.

Me and my family watched at the roundabout halfway down the Champs Eleysees. This place is a bottle hotspot so you will want to be at the side closest to the finish so you can pick them babies up!!

Food and Drink

There are some food stalls down the Champs Eleysees but I recommend to buy some baguettes and some ham/saussiucon to have for lunch. Then you don't lose your spot and is a bit cheaper.

If it is swelteringly hot you will need to keep up the fluids. Take water with you but expect to run out. There will be water available to buy so don't worry.

Toilets

There is no doubt that you will need go to the loo. Paris doesn't really have any public toilets so you could go a bar or walk to a public toilet.

Security 

In some places the French police were doing spot checks so the Champs Eleysees is quite secure. 

Clothing 

Check the weather forecast and plan accordingly. So wear light breathable clothing/footwear which you can stand in all day long. 

Kit list

Money

Phone 

Country flags

Gaffer tape

Food

Drink

Rucksacks

Drawstring bags

Train time tables

Tdf time table

Tube map

This document

Chairs

A rug

A lot of patience 

Sun cream 20°/30°

Sun hat

Sun glasses

Rain coat (if necessary)

Jumper

Cow bells

Stuff to do whilst waiting (books, music etc.)

Assen Day 1

Assen is finally here! With months of preparation we have arrived at our camp. 

Yesterday - me and the team (with a few friends) rode some of the following days courses to suss out some of the roads etc. We then signed on and went to our houses. 

Today's stage was a short, 1.5 km Prologue. It was fast, twisty and technical. What made it worse was that it rained at around 10 so the bricked section was very slippery.

 

I posted a 1 min 50 time which in the end put me in 60th. But the times were so compact that if I were half a second quicker I would be in 44th.

 

TT PB

Yay! The weather played in my favour this week, it meant that I could achieve a 24:16 on my local Time Trial course! Which is a personal best!

First win on the road in Under 16s

Finally! After some hard fought racing over the past month, I have achieved my first road win! This was at the Mallory Park road race league. The course was the anti-clockwise lower circuit with the Hilltop finish. This is my favourite course and I have managed to win several times on this circuit! The wind was a strong headwind for the finish.

The day's field consisted of about 20-25 riders in the under 16s. This meant that my teammate, George Evans had the chance to attack on lap 4 - making the leading breakaway. The break consisted of 4 riders; George Evans from MI; James Alexader (Solihull); Louis Perry (Lyme); and myself. We were working quite well together for the remaining laps, not drilling it but keeping the pace, other riders off our backs and not messing around by trying to attack each other. With one lap to go Louis went for an outstanding attack and tried to solo it to the win. This wasn't a surprise, as this tactic has worked for him in recent history, thus I decided to chase him down at once - there was no way I was letting that go again.

We briefly regrouped and I needed to pick my moment. Suddenly in the closing straight I heard my teammate George shout 'FINN! GO!' I had a 10 meter gap! Burying myself I did the longest sprint in the history of my cycling career! I put as much power as I could into my Raleigh... Up the Hill... Goooooo! I'd got it! 

Mid Season Review

The last 6 weeks haven't been the greatest in my youth cycling career. While my results haven't been fantastic I have learnt a lot.

I have had some Road races that I've really enjoyed but I'm yet to have a win in this season. However I've focused on other things like learning to attack and succeed in breaks during races for example. So to be fair it's not suprising. So far I haven't raced any national races, but I'm really looking foreword to race the Tour of the North West.

Photo by Cycling Photos by the Taceys

My Track racing was an extraordinary learning curve. All the way through my first 4 omniums I was progressing through the group by learning racing strategy thus improving my results. One of the major things that I learnt was that your equipment plays a major part in track racing. I mean, looking at the guys who are leading the races, their on £3000+ equipment. So in the final 2 events, I borrowed some track wheels and this greatly improved my results! I went from fighting for a single point to fighting for points on the sprints in the points race! A huge step up! Thanks a lot Geoff and Mike! My goals for each event were to successfully complete certain moves, so my 'wins' we're using techniques which I had discussed with my coaches.

Tour of Flanders 2016!

The Tour of Flanders. The first monument. A legendary race. 

This year The MI Racing Academy went to see the race and to ride the sportive. It was awesome! 

We made it up all bar one of the climes which was the Koppenburg due to loads of traffic!! And now I have a lot more respect for the people who win these monuments. There really hard!!

I was on my Raleigh Criterium Sport running the Cole wheels and Shwalbe Durano 28mm tyres at 90psi for extra comfort on the cobbles.

 

Tyre Pressure and Wheel Experiment

I bet we've all wondered what our ideal tyre pressure is. So I decided to find out what it really is. It's time to do an experiment!