With a lucky coincidence, our daughter happened to be in France this summer when the Froome-tastic Tour de France 2016 was taking place. She was staying in Lathus, a village in the Poitou-Charentes region in Western France. This year, stage 5 passed right through town and she was there to watch it!
As happens with the TdF, other than at the start and finish of each stage, the peleton can be little more than a brief blur for those stationed along the route, with the riders cruising by at 25-30mph at least. However, if you’ve never seen it, preceding the riders is the Tour de France Caravan.
Consider it a sponsor and media parade with crazy vehicles and plenty of trinkets and gifts thrown, but unlike other parades you might have seen it travels the whole route of more than 3000km around France throwing 14 million of those trinkets by the end of the event.
Here are a few pictures of the caravan as a taster - it’s quite the event…