marcag wrote:
I am just posting this to get you guys to come visit Montreal
https://youtube.com/shorts/7RaAlVrI_OA This is the base of the 8% climb to the top of Mont-Royal. You get to be this close 18x. Where else do you get this ?
You can just make out me and my daughter in the background in that footage! Seemed like the security guard posted right around where you were was having a rough time trying to stop people from wandering out of the woods onto the course, it was quite comical at times.
We got there about 1:15 or so, watched a lap from the finish area. The "fan zone" was a waste of time, not really much going on there. My 7 year old was hot and grumpy at that point so she and my wife stayed by the finish and I took the other two kids up to the climb to watch a few laps. Something that doesn't come across on TV is how absolutely toasted the dudes who get dropped from the break are, just beet red, drenched in sweat, grimacing, you could tell they had no more to give. Seemed like every lap there was another guy off the back, grinding away in no man's land looking miserable.
We made our way back down to the finish with maybe 3 laps to go. It was already super busy around the actual finish line and in front of the screens, so we posted up at about the 200m to go mark, right on the barriers. Ended up broing down with some south american dudes who were sharing their cooler full of beer. It was weird not knowing the race situation at the end but then when we saw the lead group come by it was obvious Wout and Tadej were there, but couldn't tell who the other guys were. Gaudu attacked right before they got to us and Pog et al in hot pursuit. We couldn't see the actual finish but could tell Gaudu had been passed. We were right in front of the UAE tent though so when they erupted in cheers we knew what that meant.
Some observations:
- Who needs tramadol when the park next to the race venue hosts a weekly drum circle that results in massive clouds of pot smoke wafting across the venue throughout the entire duration of the race?
- Having kids with you is a great way to get bottles. The various soigneurs were handing out bottles towards the end of the race and always prioritized kids. It was way easier/better than trying to scavenge discarded bottles on course, not the least of which was because the bottles we got were full (some with water, some with calories/electrolyte drink). We got a few bottles from Trek, a few from TotalEnergies, and one commemorative GPMontreal one.
- On that note, whatever Total has in their drinks is gross, and whatever Trek has in theirs is delicious.
- My wife was amused when Peto abandoned and dropped his bike at the team tent... apparently it was like Beatlemania with grown men getting giddy/on the verge of tears screaming his name and hoping he'd come over for an autograph.
All in all it was a fun experience. The kids all enjoyed it (though my 7 year old complained that she much prefered to watch the races on TV and was also upset that Wout didn't win - the other two were rooting for Pogacar so left satisfied) and my wife (who doesn't care about cycling at all) said she had fun too. It's pretty likely we'll do it again next year.