Cycling a Tour de France Stage Was Nothing Like I Expected

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What’s it actually like to ride part of a Tour de France stage just a few hours before the pros race it?

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Hello viewers and welcome back to the channel. Today you join me riding at stage one of the 2025 Tour to France. It’s about 5 hours before the riders take the course but the roads are closed. So we’re out riding the course to see what it’s all like. Got Ben and Chris ahead of me. [Music] It’s about 9:15 a.m. Race starts at 1:00 p.m. loads of time. Not planning to ride the whole course, just a session of it out of Li, but taking advantage of the closed roads. The police don’t mind us riding the course. So, let’s see how far we get. All the barriers there to follow the riders into this road here. [Music] The actual start of the race come to zero. Here’s where kilometers zero. That’s a proper start of the race now. Out of the neutral zone, club to zero. Race is on attacking today. As you can see, lovely sunny day, but it’s windy. We got a strong headwind into ker zero. So, if any rider is trying to go for breakaway, it going to be tough to get away from the pelon because it is a very strong headwind. As you probably hear from the wind noise and it’s a pretty flat road. I mean, there’s not many hills in the landscape around here. So, a tough day for the breakaway riders. You’re going to need a good size group to work together. I mean, I was struggling with just two people in front. Oh, I cut it. Pinerella. We’re not the eight people out on the course either. Are you sure? Lots of barriers. Lots of banners. Left turn here. So the full road closure out of Leil has come to an end and the road’s now open. So it was a lot of fun riding on a totally closed road. Very much. A rare experience indeed. The best ride out of town any city I’ve ever experienced. A very unique experience indeed. But back into regular roads with traffic. Lots of people outline the course. Even though the race is about 3 hours away now, there are lots of spectators out. Also lots and lots of police out almost at every junction. Just stopped in the town of Lens. I think that’s how you pronounce it. or the worst coffee I’ve ever had. We are going to continue on the route for a few more kilometers up to the first climb. I mean, I can’t imagine what sort of climb it is on this flat stage today, but we’ll have a look and then we’ll probably cut back across the countryside to Leil and try and catch a start off the tour of France. But I’ve been loads of fun riding the mostly close roads out of Leil experiencing the course. The pros will come along a lot quicker. It’s going to be a fast stage for the pros. Going to be rapid. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I hand you out free bananas. How handy is that? Banana time. Hello [Music] So the course may be flat but there’s one climb. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] about the top of the first category 4 climb on a profile compared to what lays ahead in the Pyrenees in the Alps is nothing. It’s a molehill, but on a flat course right high speed, yeah, it’ll definitely be a leg burner for sure and a great place to spectate to watch a race. Look at this. This is um a sobering place to be. Now, for all the fun of bike racing, this is a sobering reminder of what’s happened here in the past. Well, after riding about 60 km of the closed road course and passing probably 5,000 plus police at every junction, it seems we’ve been told to uh get off the road and we’re taking a different route back to Leil. But the road closures have caused a few navigational issues. But hopefully we’re back on the road to Liil now. Uh 40 minutes of pedaling. Should have a tailwind to push us all the way home and get back for start the grand depart. Yeah, riding on the closed roads are fantastic until we weren’t allowed anymore. [Applause] 14 km back to Lil. It’s going to be really touch and go if we make it to the start. I’m hopeful, but time is really tight. We’ve been pushing on at a pace to try and make it. We found some lovely cycle lanes. That lovely jumbly. So hopefully back in Dil 20 minutes just before the start of the race. Look at that cycle lane. Thank you very much. Well, I think we made it, but just trying to find the actual start. The helicopter’s in the air. Well, we didn’t quite make a start, but we’re going to find a bar and watch on TV. Look all the people around. So busy. So, Ben, your thoughts on riding the first 60 km of stage one? I’ve got a new resolution. I’m going to start all my rides with a 60 kmter closed road section where uh fans are jeering just for giggles and then finish with a screaming tailwind in uh and in the heart of the two friends grand apart. What do you think of the road conditions for the race? Uh roads are fun. It’s just so tight and windy and you know even at our pedestrian speeds it’s feel it’s a little spicy at times. So, I’m sure going four times that speed in the race is that’s got to be quite a feeling. So, we swapped our lightweight carbon race bikes for the city’s tire bikes, the ebikes, but in the restricted zone. They’ve restricted the speed, power assistance of the in certain areas, which is kind of clever, but it means they are hard work on tire legs. So, we’re making our way down to the finish line to watch the race. Hopefully, get some food, soak up the atmosphere, and I’ll get run over there. We turn right anyway. Leo is a cool busy place anyway, the best of times, but with the tour of France on it is rammed full of people. all the way. He has been finishing with the line and he crosses it first. [Applause] So that was the finish. Didn’t really see much. The crowd about 20 deep. We were 200 m from the finish line with a jumbo vision screen. So yeah, pretty amazing atmosphere. Defining the course on closed roads was the highlight today. Watching race bit tough so many people, but watching in a bar, restaurant on TV, it’s the way to do it. Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed this sort of exclusive access to riding part of a stage of the tour of France with closed roads, much slower than the pros and some of the atmosphere here in Leo. But yeah, that’s all for today. Thanks so much for watching. I’ll see you again very, very soon.