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| Dave | profile | all galleries >> France & The Tour de France 2012 >> The Tour de France >> TdF STage 20: Paris Final | tree view | thumbnails | slideshow |
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The final day of the Tour is Paris is part race, part circus, and all spectacle. Starting from the far suburbs, the racers make it a parade, relaxing and enjoying the fact the race is almost over. Congratulations are exchanged and champagne toasts are drunk—all while riding at 20 mph. But when the race reaches the downtown Champs Elysses loop all hell breaks loose as everyone would like the chance to throw up their arms in victory in front of literally hundreds of thousands of spectators. We were lucky enough to watch the race from the balcony of the Paris Automobile club on the Place de la Concorde. The racers do 8 laps of the Champs Elysses so we got to see them multiple time. Unfortunately, though, the vantage point is not really suited to getting close up pictures of the races going by, so I bided my time and got what images I could while waiting for the end of the race. I was hoping for great things afterward because our balcony overlooked the restricted team bus area where all the riders would be coming after the race—and we had team area passes! So afterward I rushed down to the buses—and waited. I wasn’t disappointed. See how many famous riders you can pick out from the photos, mainly around the BMC and Team SKY buses as such stars as Cadel Evans, George Hincapie, Tee Jay Van Garderen and others cruised back to their buses. Finally, stage winner Cavendish and yellow jersey winner Bradley Wiggins also showed up, with trophies in tow and Wiggo climbed atop a team car to acknowledge the cheers of the British crowd that had waited for him to return. It was a great experience to just be able to photograph a moment in history and see how accessible the riders really were as they met fans and signed autographs. |
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