For the last 10 years, there has been a cycling science conference, held right before the Tour de France start, at the same place. I wanted to go from the start, but summers are always so busy for me... and I did not dare to attempt to make it work. But then I went on that once in lifetime trip to Greenland last summer and managed just fine, so I decided that I can manage taking 9-10 days for a conference too, booked my flights to France and registered for the conference.
I started sharing some thoughts from the conference on the Endurance Collective publication (my work website) and will continue to do over the coming months. This is not about the conference, being my personal website and all. This is simply about sharing the photos from the team presentation and first stage!
The 3 day conference ended on the same day as the team presentation, so I went there right after I got back to my hotel from a long day of learning and networking. I did not go to the main stage assuming it would be too busy and found a spot along the packed route and took some photos of the teams as they slowly rode by. They all seemed like they were having fun being there, which was pretty awesome. Here are a few too many (but not all) photos. If you want more, click the button ⤵️
After the last team rode by, I went looking for dinner, not realizing some riders would keep riding through the city for a bit. It was a nice surprise, especially because Visma lease a bike was the most visible around town that evening, at least where I was.
Race day was windy AF. I rode the first ~10km of the course and waited for a while because I wanted to see the caravan go by - it's a vibe and I was stoked to score a lot of Haribo that fueled many rides since...
The riders go by FAST. My photography strategy was basically to press that shutter button and hooooooold it until they all went by. It was a pain to ride with two G-master lenses and my big girl camera on my back (IYKYK), but oh so worth it.
I rode back to town on 100% closed roads (bliss) to hang out in Lille till the finish. I got quite a few cheers from people in town who seemed to be very drunk already (it was barely 2pm). The town was packed. Bars were packed. TDF perphenelia everywhere. Everything you would expect, really. The finish line was also packed, for several kilometers from the finish.
Of note - I went for a run early the next morning and it was almost like nothing ever happened. Barcelona next year. For the conference again, of course.
