Stage 15 of the 2023 Tour de France ended in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and to our surprise, our apartment was about 10km from the finish line.
Shortly after we arrived in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains at our Airbnb apartment, we took a drive up the hill to see what the last few kilometres of the track looked like. The sides of the road were already closed with barriers and it was packed with campervans, motorhomes and people camping next to the road for the big day (the next day).
The Tour de France started around 11am on Sunday morning, the 16th July, a 179km ride from Les Gets to Saint Gervais Mont-Blanc and it was going to be close to 6pm when they will finish. The promotional caravans were coming past around 90 minutes prior to that, so we made our way up a very steep hill behind our apartment (about a 15 minute walk/climb) and found the perfect spot to see all the action.
There were dozens and dozens of people next to the road and around 4.30pm the colourful floats came past, throwing merchandise into the crowds. We didn’t manage to catch anything, but some friendly strangers gave some of the samples and hats to the kids.
The atmosphere was so great and the cheering extremely load when the cyclists finally started coming around the corner. As we were up on a hill, we could see them for quite a while as they struggled up towards the finish line 10km even further up an even steeper hill.
Wout Poels wass the winner of Tour de France 2023 Stage 15.
The next day, Monday, was a rest day but we were fortunate enough to be only 8km from where they did time trials on Tuesday, 18th July 2023.
All the roads into the small town of Combloux were closed, but we managed to find a parking spot close by and walked the rest of the way. As we walked towards the finish line, we saw some of the cyclists slowly riding past – done with the time trials and going back to their cars/busses.
Again, we were so lucky to find a good spot next to the road to see the best riders coming past.
Jonas Vingegaard was the winner of Tour de France 2023 Stage 16.
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