This article first appeared on Bikeradar
The Tour de France Village is La Grande Boucle’s backstage area, an exclusive pre-race enclosure where the event’s various official comestibles vie for attention ina surfeit of sweet stickiness and beer bottles empty at a frightening rate. If your name’s not on the small plastic ID card slung around your neck, you’re not getting in.
With the sun’s rays rippling over cracked tarmac, curtailing gear (and shoe) paparazzi duties to duck into the Village promised a spot in the shade and cold fluid to lower the Tour fever.
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The gate has an entrance each for guests and riders. Passing through here after a suspicious scanning of race ID – eyes travelling incredulously to my battered straw hat – the village felt immediately calmer than the barely organised chaos of sunburnt fans screaming at every rider to pass.
Perhaps it’s the very smugness of being enclosed with professional riders going about their business that creates a sense of respectfulness not shared by the unwashed masses outside, who can only look longingly in through the wire fencing. That and the fact the officious ASO police would probably chuck you on your arse for any unscrupulous behaviour.
If you’re lucky enough to gain access, the first thing to note is that barring the obligatory gift shop, everything’s free. And judging by the tens of overflowing bins, everyone seems to make the most of this fact. Cheese, ham, bacon, fried pineapple, doughnuts, tarts, cakes, biscuits, pasta – all the essentials for healthy living come in a never-ending flow, pausing only briefly to be spiked on a fancy cocktail stick en route to salivating mouths.
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