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The day finally arrived for the final stage of the Tour de France & we were in Paris!!!!!!! This was an almost "out of this world" happening for me as it evolved by accident & good fortune that we would be there this day. We have followed the Tour each year since SBS started to televise each stage highlights in the late 80's. As they showed longer stages over the years our interest has grown too & I became enraptured with the chess game that is professional cycling. Knowing the Rogers family has made us even more keen to follow Michael's career so this year we were offered passes to the finish as has parents couldn't be there. I almost didn't believe this would happen - it seemed too good to be true! We made our way to the Hyatt team hotel & waited in the foyer cafe for Alessia to arrive with the girls & her father then she gave us our passes to the seating on the Camps Elysee. This end of Paris was chaotic with crowds of people & road closures so we took a taxi as close as we could then walked to the stands (called Tribunes). We missed seeing the caravan parade but heard the horns blaring as they went by then found good seats in the shade about 200m from the finish line. As the cyclists came past on the first lap everyone stood up & waved flags in our view so we moved to the back & stood on seats to watch. This was fine & we saw them fly past at great speed - almost too fast to see who was who. Watched the presentations on a big screen tv - 1st Vincenzo Nibali, 2nd Christophe Peraud & 3rd Thibaut Pinot & enjoyed the Italian National anthem - it sounds just like opera! Eventually found the Tinkoff/Saxo bus in the melee of team buses & fans where we found Michael, Alessia, Paolo (her dad) & their lovely girls. Twins Sophia & Mathilde are 6 & Emily is 3 so they were having fun while Michael posed for photos & we toasted his success. The bottle of prosecco he poured for us he had just shaken up to shower his team-mate Rafal Majka who won the polka dot jersey. Great fun & much celebration! He then took the twins off on the bike for a team presentation ride so the rest of us went to watch. We had the BEST day - enjoyed every moment & loved meeting the rest of Michael's delightful family. Thanks to Sonja & Ian for helping to arrange the tickets & especially thanks to Michael & Alessia for making it happen so smoothly. VERY tired after a long walk back to our hotel & all that cycling!!!!!!!
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