Rob's World

Tour de France 2012 - Stage 20

We weren't really planning on seeing the finale of this year's race in Paris, but...

Circumstances conspired to place us in Paris this weekend so it really would have been very silly to miss the finish. However, I had heard lots of bad stories about the crowds and was a bit apprehensive. To be honest you have to expect this and things weren't really that bad.

What I will say though, is because of the number of people who obviously flock to the circuit around the Champs-Elysees and Jardin des Tuileries the police have to be very strict. This, combined with some poor barrier placement, makes it harder to see and feel close to the race as we had at all the other stages.

Just one example of this: the road between Jardin des Tuileries and the Seine is between three and five lanes wide along it's length. Every stage elsewhere, even sprint finishes, manage just fine with two lanes. This means that the organisers really could have taken at least one lane of the road for the crowd. They didn't do this though, which left barriers placed along a line of trees meaning it was next to impossible to look down the road and see the race coming (all one could see was the trees). Doh!

That said, this day wasn't about getting close to the action or taking any technically perfect pictures (not that I've managed that so far am sure!)... it was just about being in the crowd and soaking up the atmosphere. This, I think, we managed just fine