Tour Fever

The Tour de France came through Cambridge yesterday. As my husband is a huge fan, he was beyond excited.

The start was a couple of blocks from our house, so we were able to pop over early to check everything out. I am not a Tour fan. In fact, I like to tease my husband about enjoying the world's most boring sport. But the day was still so exciting! What a fair weather fan I am. Something about the beautiful day, months of anticipation across the city, and seeing an event live all made for such a fun day.

The anticipation in Cambridge has been huge, and the city was all decked out for the occasion. Look - someone hand-knitted little Tour jerseys for the bunting.

It was odd seeing and hearing all the French. The French signs, French operators, French market stalls, and even French police all transformed the area.

We were busy staking out our spots by the time the VIPs arrived, but Mike did enjoy seeing their chairs.

The starting line, hours ahead of the action.

Some of the many vehicles that drive before and after the cyclists.

We lined up quite early - how many chances will we get to see the Tour live? Luckily, there was a rather bizarre parade to keep us entertained pre-race.

 Some of Camille's friends joined us to help pass the waiting time.

We got our spots a little earlier than we needed to, but we didn't want to be stuck in the back, not seeing anything.

While I held our spots, Mike checked out some of the official sign-in process.

Mike tells me this person with a chalkboard has something important to do with the race. 

The spectators were everywhere.

And here they come!

Here's our shot of the leaders. Green jersey: best sprinter. Yellow jersey: overall leader. Polka dot jersey: king of the mountain. White jersey: best young rider. Mike tells me they lead out slow at the beginning of the race.

More riders. You can see someone from Team Sky in the dark jersey with sky blue stripes around the sleeves in the back. As Englishman and last year's winner Froome leads that team, they are of course the local favorite.

 How did this guy, one block into the race, already get way back here?

 Followed by the back-up bikes.

And the shows over. We had such a grand time seeing part of this year's Tour de France.