I was there with them for hours but the time went fast as we talked about cycling, what we did for our livings, cycling, food, travelling, and cycling. Finally, an hour or so before the riders would get to where we were, the big advertising armies moved in. T-Mobile and their fleet of 70's era VW bugs and buses, people dressed in various animal suits, people on bikes, motorcycles, unicycles, in cars, and of course the hot hot hot chicks waving to the audience and dancing on the flatbed trailers of trucks piled with speakers.
After
that it was a big wait. People craning their necks and looking down the
road, waiting for the
first cars to come into view, signalling
that the riders
had arrived. And it started raining. And we waited. And it rained more. And
still we waited. Then my cell phone rang. It was my father. "They've passed
into town and there was a wreck. They're coming around the Louvre now." I
closed my eyes and imagined the map in my head. Louvre. Jardin des Tuilleries.
Place
de Concorde. Then... Champs Elysées.