27.1 - Being a VIP in the Tour de France

As I am writing this, I am in the VIP zone of the Tour de France time trial. You might be thinking why in his mind would he write a newsletter at the Time trial? Well, there is nothing happening at the moment so why not. The guys in the other side of the road are drunk and screaming. And it is just waiting for the riders to appear. So here we are.

p.s. I know this newsletter is way later than the time trial. Been a bit busy in the meantime. Will update you soon.

Wait, VIP at the Tour? What the HECK just happened there? Yes, and let me explain how.

So let’s start at the beginning. How did I even end up in the Pyrenees.

It happened on my flight from Amsterdam to Alicante. I was flying over the Pyrenees, sat at the window and looked down to see the Pyrenees. I suddenly realised that I had never seen the Pyrenees. So that was a clear goal for the summer. Go to the Pyrenees.

And what is always at the Pyrenees? The Tour de France.

So my idea came to do a 3-week trip around the Pyrenees. Just an idea.

When the plan was kind of there, the roadblocks did not start popping up. Let’s give you an example of the problems I had while planning the Tour de France.

So the Tour is really cut off from the public. Which made it hard for me to do challenges or anything with riders. My thought was that I would just do this and the pro’s would just keep on coming and liking it. Like the way Tour de Tietema used to do it.

Turns out, since Tour de Tietema the Tour has been more closed off because many people want to do these things. I am not unique in any way.

Watching the Tour de France in the mountains is great, but it’s also a nightmare. I am not keen on being stuck in traffic for hours because I wanted to see the riders for 10 minutes on a climb. The horror stories of people having to wait until 23:00 for the roads to be clear is not something I truly enjoy.

So this is a constant battle. Finding out where the riders are going to be, where they are going to close off the roads and how to get out of the location quickly before the Gendarmerie closes off the road.

For example my Hautacam challenge. I wanted to go up the Hautacam before the riders and compare my time to theirs. The climb is closed off really early which made me do the climb also at an early time.

So these challenges were the things that I had to take into account.

It all started with a podcast I did last year. From that podcast someone from Shimano started following me. We had some contact, but I did not register he worked for Shimano.

In the weeks leading up to the Tour de France, with me having no goal at all, he reached out with a simple question: What stage do you want to be a VIP at the Tour? I reached out and mentioned the Time Trial. And behold, a few days later I got a VIP in my inbox.

Was this easy? Well, the conversation was. But getting there, doing a podcast and the conditions leading up to this conversation were not. It happened because I care about my content and the people I connect with.

Okay here we go. What is being a VIP actually like? To be honest it’s hard to explain in a single

We had to wake up stupid early.

Why? Because you have to park your car at the bottom of the climb. That’s how it goes at mountain stages — not just for us, but also for press, crew, everyone. It’s chaos.

We had no clue where to go. Ended up driving into a random field, parked there, and then started the first walk: about 2km to the skylift. The lift was actually really nice — stunning views — but once we got up the mountain, there was another walk.

In total? I think we walked at least 10km that day. Maybe more. Not kidding.

But yeah, that’s just how it is at the Tour in mountain stages. Going down with the Skylift was a bummer. Unless… you’re VIP. Then you skip the line back down — and that? That’s winning.

We passed about 10,000 people waiting for the lift. Would’ve taken hours. We just walked in and zipped down. Big win.

We had the idea that we might be able to do some fun challenges with the riders. Maybe talk to them a bit. But… not really.
Turns out, we were still kind of far from the action, the riders were higher up at the actual finish zone. So no chance of chatting.

Also: I expected to maybe spot a few known faces, but honestly… no one I recognised. So that part was a bit underwhelming.

That said, access to the actual race was great. We were right next to the course, seeing riders fly by on the final climb. The view over the altiport was incredible. Definitely the best way to see a TT.

This is where VIP life really shines.
We could eat everything. Ice cream? Yep. Jambon? Got ‘em. Snacks all day long? Absolutely.

I ate way too much. No regrets.

Also: toilets. Close by. That’s honestly underrated. Normally, you’re peeing behind a bush with 3,000 drunk Fans.

It was super sunny, so sunscreen was a must. I still got a little burned, but hey — that’s part of it.

Overall, it was just… relaxed. No stress. Good food. Everything taken care of.

At the start of the day it was pretty empty, but as more VIP vans came up the mountain, the area filled up. We talked to a few French guys who were really fun — bit tipsy, but fun.

We shared some laughs, especially when the riders started coming up. The French crowd gets wild. Everyone cheering, yelling, going nuts.

I didn’t drink anything (unlike most of them), but the energy was great. Seeing all of that up close with zero stress made it a really memorable day.

I will say though: if you’re going VIP, don’t do a sprint stage.

You wait all day, and the peloton passes in 30 seconds. Done. Not worth it.
But a time trial? Perfect. Riders are coming by all day. Way more fun.

All in all, being a VIP at the Tour is worth it. Especially on a climb, or a TT stage. You get views, food, access, peace. And some chaos on the side.

And big thanks to Shimano for making this possible, this was so cool to experience.