08 July - Rastatt to Karlsruhe

Another lovely fruestueck, then we said goodbye to Rastatt and our bikes (we were still sad that the bike tour was over), then got on the strassenbahn to the train station. We had an uneventful trip to Karlsruhe, and found out that there was a special on the local KVV (Karlsruhe transit), we could travel anywhere for 24 hours for only 3 euro each!

We found our hotel, and as luck would have it, it was just one block from the main Tour de France route through town. We checked in around noon, then headed to the streets which were already filling with people. Just two blocks from our hotel was a huge video screen, about 3 stories tall and blasting live coverage of the tour on German TV. There were about 10 of these along the route through town. There were "umpah" bands playing Abba tunes and big beer tents off in side streets, with the smell of sausages (wursts) grilling on large propane grills. We bought a couple of big 1/2 liter beers--in thick glass steins no less (you pay a deposit on the glass) --and staked out a position along the fence that barracaded the bike route. This was at about 1pm, and we got the last available space on the fence. By this time there were even more people crowding into the streets and lining the route. The route itself is only about 2 traffic lanes wide.

We talked to a nice group of German 20-somethings who came from Marburg (Lynne noted that this city is famous for the Marburg Virus!). Our new friends assured us that Marburg is very pretty and much more than just an ebola-like virus!. We talked about how Jan is "lazy" but still one of the best cyclists in the Tour. We watched the big screen, first advertisements and pre-tour stuff and then later live coverage of the race as it neared town.

Around 2:30 pm the crowds were really pusing at the barriers. Official tour vehicles started racing along the route, checking the way for the cyclists. At times police on bikes would ride by and the croud would cheer and egg them on. I went back for beers or pretzels a few times but after a while the crowds were so thick that it wasn't worth it.

On the big TV around 3pm (I think), the Tour coverage showed Fabian Wegmann-- A German cyclist-- riding into Germany, the first rider across the Rhein into the Fatherland. The crowds went wild. At one point a helicopter was videotaping the Karlsruhe streets and the announcer said that there were upwards of 700,000 people in the streets. The entire city left work for the afternoon to see the tour!

Then came the sponsor vehicles. These are almost like floats in a parade, very gaudy, brightly colored vehicles with dancers on top throwing out goodies to the crowd; Gummi bears, hats, bandanas, water bottles, and some even squirted water from big water tanks. It was really exciting to see. There were American semi-trucks blaring EuroDisco with dancers on top, then funny cars with big clown heads, some of those funny French cars, Durchevaus (sp?) with gigantic plastic baguettes on top.... and megaphones with French announcers saying "Guten Tag!!" in very accented German. I'd say there were probably 200 or so sponsor cars that drove by... it was absolutely incredible. At one point the French gendarmes car went by blasting a tinny europop version of the 'Beverly Hills Cop' theme. No kidding!

Then the Tourofficials drove by, followed by team cars, people would cheer when their favorites went by, but the real crowd favorite was T-Mobile (Jan Ullrich's sponsor). After these were the motorcycles, with the cameramen riding backwards on the back. Helicopters swarmed above, maybe 6 or so, and then the crowd was going wild.. huge cheers and honking horns, the umpah bands were playing as was the disco music down the street.

About a dozen motorcycles passed honking their horns and then we could see the bike riders just behind them, rounding the corner about a block away and standing up to get some speed. Huge cheers erupted in the crowd and cameras were held high and stuck out into the route. I set my camera on "high-speed shutter" and just clicked away. The riders were going about 25 or 30 miles per hour by this point, and they have a huge rush of wind as they pass. I caught a glympse of Lance Armstrong in his yellow jersey (this means he leads the Tour), safely in the center of the Peloton (main pack of riders). And in an instant they were gone.

We watched the screen to see the rest of the race. Manyjumped the fence to get in the Tour route. I looked back at my photos and saw that I had taken a good picture of Ullrich... I showed it to the German folks next to me and they said "ULLI!" and then other Germans crowed around to see the photo. German flags with 'ULLI' written across them were a popular window dressing down the streets.

The crowd then wandered around, happy to have seen the Tour, and all were glad that this time there are 2 stages that graze Germany. We wandered down to a few more "stations" along the route, eating pretzels and sausages and listening to some funny bar bands (one band sang "The Letter"--originally by The Boxtops-- and sang the lines "Gimme a ticket to an airplane..." our emphasis).

We walked around Karlsruhe and then had dinner at a converted bank building called, appropriately, Alte Bank. We checked our email at an internet cafe and then went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next stage begins in a neighboring town (Pforzheim) about 30 miles away so we need to get up early to get over there by start time.

Hotel Rio Karlsruhe
Hans-Sachs-Str. 2+3 • 76133 Karlsruhe (beim Mühlburger Tor)
Tel (0721) 8408-0 • Fax (0721) 8408-100

A bunch of Karlsruhe webcams here and another site here.

Stage 7 of the Tour de France!