the Nuits-Saint-Georges stage finish of Paris-Nice

I had the absolute pleasure of seeing the Stage 3 (Etape 3) finish of Paris-Nice in Nuits-Saint-Georges today. My schedule somehow aligned with the finish time and I was able to get out of class at 13h (1PM), eat lunch, grab my 55-200mm lens and then head to the train station for a train that left at 14h18 (2:18PM). I was a little worried that I'd have too much time in Nuits-Saint-Georges before the finish, which was estimated to be at around 17h (5PM) but I didn't have to worry about this at all.

The sprint finish! You can see Matthew Goss, the HTC sprinter on the right,
who won the stage.

I had a little walk from the train station into town but it wasn't terribly cold and I had plenty of time. I initially attempted to follow signs to the Office of Tourism and then ask where the race route was but when I saw a few police officers blocking off roads I had the hunch to follow them. Sure enough this brought me to where the final sprint would be. The barriers were already lined up and a good amount of people were already there. Despite the brief glances of the crowds on television, in Nuits-Saint-Georges everyone was very calm and chatting away.  When I first arrived people were drinking beer or eating fries (sold quite close to the barriers) and I bought a bottle of water.

I spent a good amount of time just observing the crowd and even more cleaning my lens of dust and stood close to the barriers by the 50m mark. On the other side of the road a JumboTron was set up. For the first few hours it re-played footage from Paris-Nice 2010 and about an hour and half before the finish it switched over to live footage. It was without sound but there was also a commentator who began talking about the same time as the live footage began. My favorite part of listening to him was hearing the different ways in which he pronounced different cyclists' names and also their teams. It was a good source of amusement but also a good way of practicing listening to French.

A Cofidis rider comes through after the peloton. Everyone encouraged
him by banging on the barriers. It was great to have another affirmation
that cycling fans have a great sense of sportsmanship and give
equal support to everyone when it comes to the actual races.

About an hour before the finish the crowd solidified. I was in one of the busiest areas but all of the spectators were incredibly calm and polite and they ranged from young or old. No one was dressed in any outrageous costumes although there was a man who took the free Bien Public newspaper we were all given and made it into a Curious George hat. It was very busy but everything was very controlled and it was devoid of the chaos at this past weekend's Carnaval parades.

At around this time photographers and team technicians started to come in. The photographers walked past the finish line but the technicians stood in the middle of the road and watched the live play. I could only distinguish teams when the techs had on team swag but from what it looked like they were all chatting with one another. I strained to see if any of them were speaking English but the French all around me was so overwhelming I couldn't hear anything.

Riders double back after the finish.

The technicians finally went past the finish when all of the official Paris-Nice cars came rolling through. From the commentator and the live-play I was able to keep track of roughly how close the riders were to Nuits-Saint-Georges and also how much time difference there was between the breakaway (referred to as those at la tête de la course) and the peloton.

Finally as the riders became 4 and then 2 km away we heard the thwap-thwap of the helicopter. Almost simultaneously the spectators cheered, I think, because they could recognize Nuits-Saint-Georges from the images on the live footage. Peter Sagan, a rider from Liquigas wiped out just as they rounded their way to the sprint finish but I didn't see it with my own eyes because it was too far away. Instead after the sprint it was re-played on the JumboTron.

The race was over in a strikingly short amount of time. Watching it on TV one gets the impression that it lasts much longer but basically as soon as the sprinters cross the finish line, it's over. After that the rest of the riders roll in and those not in the peloton follow. When the riders did come through all the spectators began yelling and banging on the barriers. I would have done some banging but I was snapping away at photos.

When most of the riders had crossed the finish line they doubled back to their buses. On the initial race to the finish line I had caught a glimpse of Frank Schleck and I saw him again on the way back along with the German everyone loves: Jens Voigt. Frank had his arm on a team mate's back in what I assumed was some comfort but when someone yelled out to him he turned around, waved and nodded before continuing onwards. Some riders, while on their way back to their buses stopped and watched the re-play on the JumboTron. I found this to be quite amusing, mostly because sometimes it seems we know what's happened in the race better than the riders!

The window of a Leopard-Trek car and the side of the bus with the flags
and first names of all the riders of the team (not all in the race).

Not 15 minutes after the finish the crowds started to thin and I followed the masses to see where they were headed. The masses, I discovered, were headed towards the parking lot where all the Team Buses and Cars were parked. A lot of people were looking at the bikes on top of the cars and others stood outside the buses but none of the riders came out and about 10 minutes after I got to the parking lot, some of the buses and cars started to leave. Despite this I was able to pass by the Team Radioshack and Team Leopard-Trek buses. I'm assuming there was some sort of ceremony for the stage win and the jersey's but I didn't know where it was so I wasn't able to see it.

All in all the race was quite an experience. I'm sure the chaos that reigns on mountain stages in the Tour de France would be quite something to see but it's also hard to tell what's crazy in the few moments that the camera stays with a certain group of spectators and what's crazy when the riders have passed. It was also very inexpensive to the race. Discounting the water, I payed less than 5 EUR for a train there and the return and the entire journey was relatively painless!