We awoke to glorious skies over Paris for what would be a historic day in British cycling. We headed down early to breakfast so as to be able to head over to the Gare du Nord to dump the bags in lockers in readiness for our Eurostar train home in the evening. Surprisingly when I got down to breakfast, Claire and Luke were not there. A quick text to Claire and she replied that she couldn't wake Luke up. I went up to the room and gently awoke him from his slumber and got him dressed in his Sky jersey ready for the day ahead. After breakfast we jumped on the metro to the Gare du Nord to stick the bags in lockers before heading back on the metro to the Champs Elysees. Alighting at Rue de Rivoli, the crowds were already gathering at Place de la Concorde. The main part of the Champs Elysees is full of grandstands for coroprate hospitality so we headed up the back streets adjacent and up to the intermediate sprint point so that we could see them twice as they raced up to the Arc du Triomphe and back down on each of the 8 circuits. As we were on our way up we were approached by a Sky Sports reporter and cameraman and asked whether they could interview us. I grabbed Luke and my RAF 'Wiggo' flag and we were promptly interviewed along with Mike and Rob. I even managed to shoe horn a plug in for Christian Aid.
The clip of us on a special report at 12pm on Sky Sports News kindly recorded by my brother Mike:
After the excitement of being interviewed and subsequent messages home to record Sky Sports News, now came the sharpening of elbows to keep our place on the Champs Elysees. We had placed ourselves just a few metres form the PMU intermediate sprint and you had to keep close guard so that someone didn't steal your place as race time approached.
Just after 2pm the Publicity Caravan rolled up the Champs Elysees. Crazy driving, sights and sounds ensued as the caravan rolled past for the best part of an hour.
A short wait and a glimpse of the helicopter heralded the start of the first circuit on the Champs Elyees. They flew past with a hum resonating through the thousands of pounds worth of carbon. Jens Voigt (shut up legs!) decided to make a fist of it and along with two other riders managed to eek out 30 seconds on the peloton. With two laps to go the Sky train along with help from Liquigas set about reeling them in and it was down to 9 seconds with just 1 lap to go. The Sky train was now in full effect with Wiggins and Boasson Haagen all set to keep the pace high and catapult Cav to the stage win. We were trying to decipher the French commentary and it took a good few seconds to realise that Cav had gone and won his 4th straight win on the Champs Elysees and led out by the yellow jersey himself.
I said goodbye to Claire and Luke and headed down the Champs Elysees to try and catch the presentation ceremony. We managed to get down there just as the national anthem was sung and could see the back of Wiggo and the big screen.
Once the mosh was over we headed to Gare du Nord on the metro and had a meal at Buffalo Grill outside the station, being subjected to the worst service known to man. Afterwards we grabbed the bags and headed up to Eurostar departures to await boarding and the train home.
I can say I was there when British Cycling history was made.
