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The day before the start of the Tour de France 2001 saw Addiscombe members Eileen and Marco traveling through the countryside of Northern France en route to Dunkirk. As they cycled through Gravelines they came across some of the pro teams making last minute preparations for the forthcoming three weeks of action.
The Banesto truck was parked in the town square and the team mechanic was readying the bikes in front of everyone. Note the Euro fag hanging casually from his mouth as he tinkers with the bike.
Hurray! Eileen stumbles upon the Cofidis bikes outside their hotel.
And then Britain's sole competitor David Millar showed up...
...and was immediately pounced upon by the waiting French media.
Blimey. Millar's leg.
Just about every team we saw in the race had these striking Elite gold bottle cages.
The Cofidis road wheels.
This rider was checking his saddle position with the use of a plumb line.
We were surprised the bikes needed this much setting up. Perhaps they got them from a catalogue.
We managed to wish David well and told him we had made the journey to cheer him on in the prologue just before the media nabbed him. Ten minutes later he came over and found us to give Eileen the cap he had been wearing and a couple of water bottles. We managed to thank him and give him some more hero worship before he was on his way again. What a nice man. Can you imagine stars in other sports behaving in the same way? And Eileen noticed the hat was sweaty so it really was a kosher one and not just out of the promotional box.
We set off for Dunkirk pedaling our laden bikes when we stumbled upon the Bigmat team. They were staying in a travel lodge type hotel and were in the dining area having their lunch. We tried not to be too annoying.
And the Mavic guys were staying there as well.
The Bigmat team were a trusting lot. Their bikes were left outside and they weren't locked up. I hope these boys never race in Croydon - they wouldn't even make it to the start line.
Tour de France 2001 Out of Town
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