End of the Tour

Paris is gearing up for the Tour de France final to be held tomorrow on Sunday. Today the Champs Elysees was being prepared for that. The cyclists will finish the three weeks tour on this famous avenue. Temporary grandstands were being set-up and millions expected to line up the street of Paris tomorrow. It would have been great to stay overnight and watch the final tomorrow. Alas we got other things to do on Sunday and the kids also have things with their friends.

We saw some cyclists going up and down the Champs Elysees while we we were walking along the avenue, they were obviously non-pro by the shape of their bodies. But they were there just to liven up the atmosphere and enjoying the group ride.

On the Tour itself, the winner was already decided today on the 20th stage. Tomorrow's stage is usually regarded as a ceremonial one apart from the winner from the sprint. Today's stage was the last mountain stage that includes the infamous Mount Ventoux. Climbing this mountain is said to be one of the toughest in professional cycling. The gradients of the climb range from 7 to 10 % i.e 100m climb for every kilometre. The mountain itself is about 1900m high. It was reported up to a million people ascended to the mountain to watch the race today.