A bloke from Kilburn winning the Tour de France
So here we are on the last day of St Ybard 2012. Sorry it’s a bit late in being reported but I’ve had to learn how to get Wiggo’s photo via bluetooth off my mobile onto the Clarencurt Blog – only a brief afternoon’s work and I still don’t know if it’s worked! Anyway Norman and Denbo were up at day break last Saturday to make a quick escape to the channel tunnel car park for a three hour wait. The rest of us bummed around tidying up and were away just after ten o’clock. It was about 3pm when we entered Chartres to watch the final time trial and soak up the glory. There were Union Jacks everywhere and lots of Aussies with blow-up kangaroos. We tried not to gloat, putting on sombre faces and keeping our hands over our mouths. We strolled around the course watching the earlier riders thundering into town until we found a pleasant bridge just inside the red kite with a beautiful view of the cathedral and a very noisy race commentator who added to the excitement and atmosphere as he announced each riders time, position and delay as they crossed the line. Eventually Nibali came walloping down the hill in full Liquigas flood followed by Chris Froome and then Wiggo closely followed by a huge caravan of the world’s press. Paul Martin got a good photo of The Boy and I got an even better one of the bit of road he was just about to ride onto. Then it was a leisurely stroll back through the town to the car followed by another long sleep until we arrived at the tunnel terminus for a slow wait and load and back onto UK soil just before midnight and so to the family seats in the early hours. Very many thanks to Paul and Trevor for all the driving and to everyone for yet another great “Last of the Summer Wine” in Correze.
Mick