Saturday July 30th- Team USA in the Alsace- Who needs LeTour de France?

This was supposed to be a slow day- no strenuous exercise.  All that was planned was a little trip to Ribeauville, 5 minutes away, to watch the professional bike race known as the Tour Alsace have their Grande Depart.  Little did we know what a big event this is for the international riders (who are pros, but one step below the Tour de France riders).

At the starting point, a large parking lot was filled with tents where you could get info on the race. Here we discovered that several Americans were competing, 6 of whom were riding for the Team USA Cycling contingent.  After a bit more nosing around, we found a large side parking area where all of the bicycle team buses, vans and RV’s, riders, trainers, and coaches were stationed.  Naturally we felt compelled to seek out the American lads, and give them some encouragement!

The official Alsace "pace car" complete with stork nest and kugelhopf on the roof:

The team's pre-race staging area:

Chris and the Team USA boys had a long pre-race conversation, while Alan was off finding a strategic spot to film from.  Her motherly words no doubt helped them feel a little bit closer to home.  It appeared that we were the only Americans on the scene, and it was only right that we acted in loco parentis to these U23 riders. Felt good to meet those young men.  They were so warm and friendly and talked to us right up to when the start siren sounded.  One of the young men- a New York lad- had even won the first stage of the competition and was wearing the blue and white checkered jersey. It wasn’t the Tour de France, but it kind of felt like it to us!

Members of Team USA Under 23 squad:

Team USA being introduced to the crowd at the Depart:

The riders left Ribeauville in a big rush of color and pageantry, complete with escort from a full team of Gendamerie motorscycle police, support vehicles, and countless other important looking vehicles and vintage cars.

The Gendarmerie fleet of motorbikes ready to take off:

Two minutes before "go time":

Check out this video of the Depart:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bge3K7XdBqQ

With all the excitement of seeing “our boys” off, we decided to grab lunch in a nearby village and realized during eating a healthy salad that the Tour would go right through the streets of Kientzheim, where we were eating.  So, we extended our visit for a few hours longer to cheer on our team USA as they came through the cobblestone gated streets. 

Here is a short video of some of the riders zipping through the cobblestone streets of Keysersburg after four hours and many tough mountain miles from the start: 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tDPV0G4yVo

It felt very much like what you see on TV for the Tour de France.  Spectators were waving flags and yelling, “Allez Allez!”  Of course, we joined in, but added USA whenever we spotted our Red, White and Blue USA jerseys coming through.  Alan told them to “kick ass” and Chris was feeling motherly making sure each of our boys came through the village, before she was willing to leave.  It was a wonderfully slow but American proud kind of day.