Time for a time trial…

We walked out of the hotel around 10:00 AM to go see what might be going on.  The elves were busy overnight and had gotten everything set up -aside from the start booth, which was already there yesterday.  It was amazing to see how well they managed to squeeze the race structures into this small space at the edge of town.  The trailers and tents in this picture were set up in a parking lot.

The start booth is just out of the picture to the left. The Jumbotron was a short way up the street to the right.

There was a side street higher up -overlooking the street that the racers would be using.  I knew I’d like to stand there at some point because I’d be able to see more.  

But first, we wanted to go up the street to do some reconnaissance to see how far it would take for the crowd to thin out a bit. We planned to retreat up the street to watch riders pass by later in the day.  Watching from there would also keep us on the same side of the road as our hotel and make it easy to go back for breaks if needed. 

When we turned around to head back, I saw the devil !!  I don’t know if there is only one -or multiple- devils, but we’ve seen him for years on TV.  He seems to manage getting on TV at some point for every stage.

The individual time trial is different than a regular stage.  For the time trial, the riders ride out alone, one by one.  The last place rider goes first, then every 30 seconds after that the next rider goes -all the way up to the #1 rider.  As you can imagine, it took a couple of hours to get through all 166 riders that departed that day.  The devil was on his way further up the road when I snapped his photo.

When we got back to the starting booth area, we managed to find the crossing point to get across to the street and take the steps up to the road on the hill.  Even though the roads are blocked by the barriers at certain points of the route, they do have crossover spots where people can get through -but only when the policemen manning the barricades know there’s no danger of pedestrians interrupting the race..

I found a spot along the rail and planted myself.

This picture looks in the direction the riders rode. You can see the crossing point -it’s where the men are standing in the road.

When we’d walked up the street, we’d seen where they had parked the buses, something we’d been wondering about because of the limited space and all the hills.  Mike was interested in checking that out, so he left to go explore because there was lots of time before the caravan started.

The buses are top of the line. Each one is worth in the area of one million dollars.

He was able to walk right up to this team’s bikes. The bike in this picture is worth between $20,000-$40,000 !!

He walked the entire line of buses (up the hill) and says that it was about one mile long.  At the top, there was a closed off road that would have connected back to the street the starting booth was on.  We think the riders used it to get to the start booth -arriving from behind the booth.  

He got back just in time for the Caravan to go by.  These pics are just a few to give you an idea of what it looks like.

This is one of the “floats” for the company that sponsors the yellow jersey. They give out a stuffed lion to the holder of the yellow jersey at every stage.

The poultry company had several chicken trucks. We got a magnet from them in Mulhouse.

After the caravan, we crossed back over to the other side (the side our hotel was on) because that gave us a bit more flexibility with moving around and an easy escape to the hotel when we needed it..  We also wanted to meet up with our brother-in-law, Elton, and we’d spotted him “over there”.

Looking back toward the departure area.

I have the impression that a time trial day is a bit more laid back than regular stage days.  it was plenty crowded, but yet not to the point of it feeling impossible to move around.

We walked closer to the departure area, which of course was the place to be for the spectators..

This is my view of one, if you can call it a view.

We had some time before the riders who were leading the Tour departed, so we took a quick walk along the main shopping street for Evian les Bains.  Mike and I had already seen it the day before, but Elton hadn’t yet.

This was a merchandise van. Much less crazy than the tents were earlier in the day.

I took a picture of the start booth from behind on the way by.

Before we turned around to head back to the starting line, we stopped for a cold drink.  I thought it was funny that we were at a Tour stage, watching the action on TV.

This is what a depart looks like on TV

Back at the starting line, a friendly Tour fan took this photo for us.

We watched a few more departs in this area before heading up the street to watch more riders go past.

Both Mike and I took tons of pictures as riders came our way.  To be fair, they all look exactly alike – so I’ll post the best one.  It is of Tadej Pogacar, who was the eventual winner of the 2026 Tour de France.  His fifth…so far.  He’s going to be one for the history books.  Each rider is followed by a team car (with an extra bike in case of emergency) and a motorcycle that has a TV camera man as its passenger.

While we’d been watching the caravan, we had spotted Elton across the street, but there was no crossing over until the caravan was done.  There was an E.Leclerc (supermarket chain) vehicle parked over there.  This company is the official sponsor of the polka-dot jersey (an award given to the best climber on the Tour (based on a points system).  Just before the caravan arrived, they started handing out their signature polka-dot T-shirts.  It was an absolute mob scene at first.  I was happy to be across the street from it !!  But it did quiet down eventually and we found out that Elton managed to get one.  I was so jealous!  This particular shirt seems like it is seen everywhere along the side of the road during Tour stages…. it is just one of those if you have one you’ve been to the Tour things.  They don’t advertise how many they give out during the two weeks of the tour -but it has to be thousands and thousands of them.

He’s the best bro-in-law though…because he actually got a couple of them and gave me one!

I enjoyed this stage the most out of the three we were able to experience.  It felt a lot more laid back than the other two, less frenetic.  I’m glad we were able to experience seeing the Tour, but as it often happens with major sporting events, we both agree that it is much better watching it on TV.

***Update***

After we got home, we went back to watch some of the big moments of the Tour that we missed because of the trip.  One of the things we wondered was if we’d actually gotten on TV at any of our Tour stops.  Turns out, Mike did end up on camera a couple of times late in the time trial stage.  We had to take a screen shot from the TV.  He’s blurry, but it is him.  I missed my five seconds of fame because toward the end, I’d had enough for the day and had gone back to the hotel room.

Screenshot

Categories: Part 7 - Stage 16 Tour de France, Switzerland 2026