The Tour de France finished up yesterday with its traditional laps around central Paris and the final ride down les Champs Elysées. The champion of the entire tour, Geraint Thomas, had been determined before this last, ceremonial, stage, as is typically the case, but there was still some drama because it's always cool to win any stage of the Tour.
Glenn had been following the Tour in great detail during the past couple of weeks on TV and various websites. He knew all of the teams and many of the riders, could explain strategies on various stages, and could tell tales of crashes and mishaps throughout. So, even though Kate and I had not been following closely, we were able to benefit from Glenn's knowledge when we went yesterday to watch the final stage. He pointed out the early breakaway group and explained how they were almost sure to be caught by the best sprinters by the end of the stage due to the sprinters in the peloton being relatively well-rested because they could draft more effectively. He explained the composition of the teams with climbers and sprinters and how they typically worked together. He told us who to look for, both in the breakaway group and the peloton, each lap they came by. We timed how the gap between them closed on each successive lap as well.
We decided to watch from les Tuileries, where the crowds would not be as large as les Champs Elysées. It took us about 20 minutes or so to walk there, and we managed to find a good vantage point to view the race along rue Rivoli.
In addition to the bicyclists, we also got to see a fly-over by French fighter jets leaving red, white, and blue smoke trails. (I wasn't quick enough to catch the jets, but here are the trails.)
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