Day 12
Wednesday
Aix-en-Provence - Aix-en-Provence
Everyone at home I've spoken to about this trip has given roughly the same response, ranging from: "You lucky sod," to "And you call that work?".
Contrast that to the reaction of everyone working in some capacity at the Tour who hears we are travelling and living in a camper van. They range from: "You poor sod" to "You must be mad."
It's always struck me as odd how fans of cycling are so unlike fans of other sports. While it is seen as fair enough to have favourites it is frowned upon to openly dislike anyone.
But just as I can't bear Tottenham Hotspur (or Middlesbrough and Burnley for that matter), there are certain cycling teams I dislike.
Of course these are purely personal feelings and I don't let them colour my actual reporting. Okay, okay, settle down at the back now.
It's great to have discussions over the dinner table about the day's tactics or the latest political intrigue because they are such a rarity away from the Tour. Put it this way, cycling talk is not a big topic around the dinner table at home or in the pub with friends. One particular friend of mine has a habit of asking: "What's going on in the world of cycling then?" and follows the question with a high pitched "Tring-tring" like the sound of a bicycle bell.
And despite the fact that almost every waking hour is spent doing something related to the Tour - getting to it, watching it, speaking to people about it, writing about it, planning ahead - there is still a sense of missing a heck of a lot of what's going on.
Even if you visit the start to chat to a few people, see the race live, then watch the last couple of hours on television, and read all four pages of L'Equipe's coverage each day, you'll miss something. That's because the race is constantly changing. Every hour, in fact. Yesterday's big story or man of the moment is superseded by today's.
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