Oh NO! 2013 Euro Tour ideas - 100th Tour de France / Ducati Factory

iconic944ss

iconic944ss

Elite Member
I've already convinced myself I NEED to ride my 944ss to the factory next year for his 20th anniversary - but definitely NOT over any G.O.A.T. tracks :rolleyes:

Then I heard while catching up on the Tour de France yesterday that next year will be the 100th edition of the race, its fate falling into place already!

Hmmm... Pyrenees, Alps, Factory, Museum, ... Can't say I'd fancy Paris for the end of the TDF but its an interesting option.

All I need to do is sell two bikes, rebuild my SS from the ground up and find all the money and time off from somewhere, pah, easy!
 
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Sounds like a good plan. TBH the final stage of le Tour is a great spectacle. I went there two years ago just for the final stage. Left here Saturday afternoon, drove to Paris, slept in the car, watched the race from Place de La Concorde, had a beer and drove home. In bed by 7am Monday.
 
Additional option....

Since I currently have an Aprilia and am still a Laverda fan at heart, pad the middle of the 'Tour de Frank' © :) with a visit to as many Italian factories as possible...

Ducati
Aprilia
Moto-Guzzi
Old laverda site
Others ???
 
I did that tour for the laverda factory anniversary in about 97 AIR, went to Zane and on the return did a couple of Alps stages, I've also followed Le Tour on the motorbike a number of times with Linzi and done the final stage in Paris a couple of times but always flown in for that one.

if you are doing it book early if you want to be in a town with a stage finish, hotels fill up quickly. We've tended to watch en route rather than at start finish, we'll do one of each just for the ambience, its nice to be able to sit in cafes with riders before hand but stage finishes arent that much fun unless you can get grandstand tickets, anywhere else on the run in and the speed is so high you see very little. One of the best ones is to pick a smaller climb on a mountain stage, these tend to be easier to get access to as on a lot of the big climbs the roads gets closed 8 hours before so you need to walk up. We've done a couple where we just take a rug to sit on, some food from super market and sit all day watching the caravan go through and chatting to other fans, its a really social affair. I did one near Chatel where we were kitted up and back on our bikes as last riders came through, the gendarmes saw we were wanting to go, waved us out and we got to come down with the police out riders, amazing fun as it was quick, racers and team cars aren't hanging around ! Only downside was we were then stuck in he caravan on closed roads and wanted to start the run home, luckily we managed to eventually get out of it :D

Plan your route well leaving time for closed roads, they do get shut down hours before tour comes through, oh and have a contingency plan, a wet day sat on an alpine pass aint much fun :)
 
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