Tour de France 2012 - Stage 9
This was the individual time trial from Arc-et-Senans to Besançon, and what a big day out it was for us!
Everyone had said that the climb would be the place to see riders at their best, and having done a recon the day before was inclined to agree. That said, this is a time trial and riders would be zipping over the course all day so figured there was a chance to see a bit of everything. The night before I prepared a list of GC riders, calculated their start times and made a plan which worked out pretty well.
It was a very early start to the day from our hotel 30 minutes drive or so from the Départ, but this was rewarded with an easy park around 8am only a few minutes walk from all the action - something that came in handy when we returned to the car to move on another position on course.
We were also very fortunate to score some tickets to a VIP area on the final corner (actually part of why we needed to be here early - to collect these) so that would be our last stop of the day, after the start and that hill.
It has to be said, whilst it was great to see the start and then the finale of main GC riders coming in from a VIP area (think air-con and complimentary drinks and ice creams on a hot day) at the finish, the highlight had to be sitting on the major climb on this course.
To be honest I was absolutely amazed that after spending a good deal of the time watching riders start that we were able to drive to basically the centre of Quingey and once again park just a few minutes walk from where we wanted to be - the 14% section of that climb. Here we sat on the verge of the road - for over an hour - while every two minutes or so another competitor surged, or sometimes grimaced, or in the case of Henderson, grinned their way up the road. To be so close (literally 1m or so away) to such stars travelling at (for them) such relatively slow speed was fantastic. The noise of carbon disc wheels whooshing by again and again a real enduring memory.
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Départ: TT Bling! And some more standard stuff - what is that doing here? Well - it is a bike show, right?
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Départ: Other random stuff. Note the trend in team busses, everything including... 
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Départ: Have to include a few of the caravan, but think was more impressed with the Italians at the Giro.
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Départ: Farrar, Timmer, Lemoine, Renshaw, LL Sanchez, Hutarovich, Lloyd
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Départ: Cavendish, Gretsch, Van Hummel, Ladagnous, Oss, Pineau, Eisel, Westra
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Other things snapped in the 2 minute time gaps between riders. And yes - this climb was steep!
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Quinziato, Ruijgh, Lund, Kadri, Pineau, Grabsch, Cummings
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Martin, world TT champ looks like he knows how to suffer, but even he though is on the inner ring here!
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Roelandts, Petacchi, Zingle, Impey, Kiryienka, Perez Moreno, Bak, Roy
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: As you'd expect from a legend like Johnny Hoogerland... he was up here like a rocket!
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Levarlet, De Kort, Knees, Trofimov, Morkov, Devenyns, Boeckmans, Popovych, Kern, Marzano
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Henderson, who joked via Twitter about not trying too hard was certainly the one smiling most here!
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Velits, Fofonov (with no back-up & next rider in his team due almost 20 minutes later!), Minard
Monday 9 July 2012
On the climb: Legend Jens Voigt doesn't seem to understand it's a TT & there's no-one behind to put the pain on!
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Arrivée: Other sights from on and around the time trial finishing straight.
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Arrivée: O'Grady, Hincapie, Kessiakoff, Vichot, Kiserlovski (being overhauled by), Peraud, Szmyd, Casar
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Arrivée: Sagan, Kashechkin, Cancellara, Sörensen, Velits, Rogers, Izaguirre Insausti, Coppel, Leipheimer
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Arrivée: Van Garderen, Brajkovic, Schleck, Gallopin, Roche, Van Den Broeck
Monday 9 July 2012
Stage 9 Arrivé, the pointy end: Monfort, Froome, Menchov, Nibali, Evans, Wiggins
