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We are half way between the 100 metre and 150 metre position on the straight for the final day of the 2012 Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées . Will see them going both ways.
Took more than an hour to walk to this spot from the hotel doing some souvenir shipping on the way. Huge crowd.
The Riders are still more than 2 hours away. They amble to the Champs-Élysées and then it gets serious.
The caravan started through about 2.30pm.
A problem is that you get there well in advance of the riders because there is not allocated seating and you just have to sit and wait. I had taken a book which helped while away the time. However we were out in the sun for the entire period.
The riders arrived around 4.30 and the racing began on earnest. There was an early breakaway which looked like succeeding until half way through the last lap.
For a moment I thought Goss might beat Cavendish. The secret to the sprint here is to have your team lead into the last corner which is only about 350 metres from the finish. It is so tight at that corner that if you are not in the leading team you are too far back - as was the case here. Sky, through a big Wiggins effort, lead into the last corner and Cavendish won easily.
We watched the awards and then walked back to the hotel, having dinner on the way.
As we were having dinner just near our hotel a number of the riders including most of the Orica team road past. To get to this point they had to ride around the Arc de Triomphe - quite a challenge. We had seen an accident there as we were walking back. I was told when working over here that insurance policies are void for any car accidents at the Arc de Triomphe.
It was a zoo at the hotel as the spectators hung out to see the riders. There was a red carpet of sorts with security people keeping the fans behind the ropes. Most if the teams including Sky were staying at our hotel.
We went out again about 8.30pm (for a 2nd dinner..) and the zoo was continuing.
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