On the Road ... Tour de France

GAP, France — Just as riders face unexpected obstacles, I've always faced at least one potential catastrophic occasion during each of the 10 years I've attended the Tour de France. And yet every time some wacky problem has struck — nearly running out of gas to getting sick to not being able to find a hotel as midnight approaches — it's always worked out. For the record, I'm not the only person at the Tour de France who faces looming trouble just around the bend. It's the nature of the three weeks of daily travel. It's crowded highways, misplaced directional signs and general fatigue that gets even the best veteran Tour de France followers. Even the French get lost, get in accidents, get sick, have equipment stolen and have bad experiences with the police. The latest chapter in my ongoing series of Tour dilemmas occurred Sunday. My traveling friend and I were set to share a three-apartment flat at L'Alpe d'Huez. We had an expected two-hour drive to the mountain, but we didn't leave the press room until 8:30 p.m. We had about one-third of a tank of gas, credit cards, ATM cards, but no Euros. The bank system had been down throughout various parts France on Sunday, but we decided to drive toward L'Alpe d'Huez anyway, in the direction of Briancon. It rained hard and we soon enough realized we likely wouldn't make it. We decided to check hotels in small villages. Every place was full. We drove back into Gap and looked for gas stations, none of which would accept our credit card. At the fourth gas station we tried, I asked a driver of an ambulance at the adjacent pump if she could assist. She tried our various cards, also to no avail. She offered to escort us to a bank with an ATM to try again. It worked. She escorted us back the gas station. We gave her 50 Euros and she bought us gas with her credit card. Still without a room, I decided to drive in the reserve direction of the race, to Sisteron. We asked for rooms in three places along the way, also without success. At nearly 12:30 a.m., I found one room at an Etap, the lower-lever modular hotel. My colleague and I shared the room, which included odd but efficient bunk beds and a self-contained plastic shower. We had cereal, crackers and a beer for dinner. Another potential disaster at the Tour had been avoided, thanks to the generosity of a French person willing to help. They're always willing to help. — James raia

posted by dave kellogg at 8:11 PM

On the Road ... Tour de France

A Tour adventure

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