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Equipment & Logistics
"I'm gonna show you a hill that would choke a mule."
President G.W. Bush on his MTB moments before losing his front-wheel traction and flying over his bars down a steep dropoff.
Details of the bikes, equipment, campervans, navigation aids, drinks, energy food, cameras and all the other paraphanelia of a 3 week cycle tour are now coming together.
Details of the planned overnight stops are here (work in progress)
Navigation
We do know that accurate and efficient navigation of the Tour route is going to be a key factor. Although the general tour route has been announced, the exact route (ie all the little roads and urban deviations) will not be announced until very close to the depart.
The Tour de France 'Road Book' is what is really required, a hefty guide produced by organisers ASO for journalists and team support that provides pretty much all the info anyone needs to follow the tour (and is ususally the source of the little gems of information about obscure French Chateaux that Phil Ligget seemingly plucks from nowhere when he's running out of things to say about the riders on Channel 4).
Our plan involves using Memory Map mapping software and handle bar mounted GPS receivers, probably similar to the Garmin units like the Foretrex 201 or Forerunner that are currently being used for training rides.
With this combination it is possible to plot the route out on a laptop and then load it into the GPS. Then by following the breadcrumb trail it is pretty easy to follow the pre-planned route without stopping at every junction to figure out the route.
We have been absorbing the route details as they are released on the official web-site. Fortunately as usual the 'grand boucle' does not involve many autoroutes or main roads. Where is does, we have sought the nearest quiet parallel alternative, but this has not been required more than a couple of times.
Generally French roads are a different prospect to UK equivalents, much more cycle friendly. Indeed when Tour of Britain technical director Mick Bennet was discussing race road closures with Cycling Weekly recently, he advised that there are 65 vehicles per kilometre of roads in Britain, in France there are 16. I know where I'd rather ride my bike.
Garmin Foretrex 201
Stages 3 to 15 have now been loaded into Memory Map (we don't yet have full UK and Belgian Memory Map coverage).
Watch this page as our plans come together.