On the second weekend of July, we took a spontaneous trip to watch two of the stages for the 92nd Le Tour de France. This year's event starts Saturday 2 July until Sunday 24 July 2005. It consists of 21 challenging stages that encompasses a total distance of 3607 kilometers (2241 miles). We had an opportunity to be spectators in one of Europe's most televised and popular racing sports. Besides, we lived so close to France. Stage 8 began in the Black Forest town of Pforzheim, Germany and finished in Gerardmer, France. The host town of Gerardmer had these beautiful art works in the park and on a traffic circle. This is the first time in which a town is the finishing and starting point of a tour stage.

We watched the tail end of stage 8 on Saturday at Col de la Schlucht before ending in Gerardmer. The Col de la Schlucht is about 1139 meters and 16.8 km long with a gradient of 4.4%.

We visited an area of Gerardmer where the sponsors parked their cars and vans before the next stage. Dave posing in front of a sponsor's beetle. Me in front of GIFI duckie cart.

The caravan of sponsors usually starts out two hours before the race and hand out advertisement paraphernalia. The sponsors give away things like these big green hands you see as well as little umbrella hats, caps, etc. We seemed to miss catching them.

Dave took a picture of the first cyclist up Col de la Schlucht toward the town of Gerardmer. A few more cyclists along with camera men on motorcycles and cars carrying the cyclists extra bikes.

This is the peleton (French word meaning group) chasing the cyclists up front. The Col de la Schlucht is considered a category two climb out of four. This part of the race is only 15 km from the finish in Gerardmer. A polka dot jersey (white jersey with red dots or maillot pois) is awarded to the race's best climber. Can you see Lance Armstrong's yellow jersey? We think he is the cyclist in the second picture hidden behind the front rider in the white and blue jersey. You can barely see his left shoulder. We never got to see him since the riders passed by like a school of fish.

This is the town of Gerardmer where Stage 9 started. The cyclists will complete a 171 km race to finish in Mulhouse. We were hoping to get a glimpse of Lance again. We think he is the one in the front center with the infamous yellow jersey. The view above is from Gerardmer's park with a lake.