Day 46- Paris- Time Trial a Grace Brown Wins!
Slept in until 7.00am after a late night watching the Opening Ceremony…. And it was raining when we woke up!
The temperature was coolish but around 20 degrees. From what hear in Melbourne , this would be considered a hot day! The rain did not really stop all day.
After breakfast we planned to look at going to an Olympic event of some sort. The enthusiasm to see something was high after the wonderful ceremony last night! Looking at the Paris games website it seems that all the ticketed events were sold out, so I suggested we look at the cycling time trial for both men and women. So we got a map of the event and applied cycle.travel to find our way to a viewing spot.
After doing a few chores we made our way to the Bastille Square where the views were quite good. As we were early and it was still raining we planted ourselves outside a restaurant with an overhanging awning and made ourselves comfortable. Feeling we had to justify being at the restaurant we ordered lunch which for me was fish with a salad and a cappuccino.
The wait for the women’s event was not long and we watched most of the rider’s make their way past us about 5 kms from the finish. Grace Brown was looking good after each of the intermediate time checks and to see her flash by us near the end was truly remarkable. Both Dteve and I held our breath until her first place gold medal position was confirmed…. And we then celebrated!!!
What a wonderful win and to be there was really quite special.
After this we moved to a better vantage point to see the first major turn near the start of the men’s event. There was a lot more spectators at this location but the atmosphere was quite amazing. You could hear shouting and cheering as the riders approached and passed us. All riders no matter the country was cheered but the French team got the loudest of course. We watched Luke Plapp start and it seemed he was doing well at the first checkpoint but crashed out shortly after. It was quite understandable really with the rain making conditions very difficult. He is very young and will get his chances again I am sure.
The NZ riders in both the men’s and women’s events also did well and Steve and I were happy to cheer them on in support of Chris.
After the race we made our way back by bike to the hostel to a warm shower and a rest after an excellent day. I must say the atmosphere at the cycling today was very good and on a par with the Tour which I have seen a couple of times. Even despite the weather, the crowds were strong and well behaved.
Today’s pictures are :
The ride route we took to the time trial
République square near the time trial course
Grace Brown going for it 5 kms from the finish….. gold, Gold, GOLD !!!
Us in the shelter having lunch!
The Bastille monument near where we watched the men’s time trial
Luke Plapp going for it…
Steve and I celebrating Grace’s win
