Went for another nice bike ride with Colin – got separated at one point when I stopped to take a photo and then took a wrong turn.  Colin realized I wasn’t behind him anymore – he thought I might have wiped out on a bridge with gravel so came back for me.

Stopped at the bar for a cafe-creme, then home to have a quick bite before heading to Cognac to watch the first day of the Tour Poitou-Charentes.  We parked the car and walked to the main square, that has a carousel in the middle and is ringed by large hotels and nice cafes/bars.

We sat and had a couple of drinks, then walked down the street that the race is finishing on today (not the road shown below).

Along the way we passed a lady in a chair that had a little chihuahua in its own chair – Colin remembered them from some years ago at a couple of races so we stopped and they chatted for a minute.

We walked a bit further, crossed the road and chose a spot about 50 metres from the finish line.  I climbed up on a side-barrier so I’d have a better view – the ‘officials’ at that spot thought it was pretty funny, but mostly it was very uncomfortable – there were small metal things jutting out all along it and it wasn’t that easy to keep my balance.

There is a very small cavalcade and they throw out small packets of cookies and stuff – the cutest thing is the cow.

The race came by twice as they were doing a large circuit at the end – on the first pass there was a small breakaway.  

For the second/final pass I had moved from my uncomfortable perch down to the barricade and stood with one foot on the barricade and the other on the speaker stand that was right beside us.  It got me about a foot higher so I could see over at least some of the other folks. The breakaway had been caught and there was a mass sprint to the finish.

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