Looking back at TdF 100

We’re back!  The SBT enjoyed a brief Tour de France hiatus.  The French outdid themselves and delivered a spectacular 100^th edition of the great race.  The final stage is always fantastic but this year with daylight fading the City of Light came to life with a fitting end to a truly memorable Tour.  The Champs Elysees was epic in its grandeur.  The SBT says congratulations to Chris Froome, our pre-race pick to win and to a couple of riders we didn’t see coming: Nairo Quintana, Andrew Talansky and Marcel Kittel.  We’re also sad to see the last Tour ride of Jens Voigt.  

The Tour de France offers a number of reasons to watch: the HD helicopter images, the centuries of history, the grand peaks of the Alps and much more.  But what we really like is Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.  The two men make the Tour.  After the riders Phil and Paul are the Tour.  We love their dulcet tones, the cool British vernacular, and their excitement.  When Phil gets cranked up to call a sprint finish the spine tingles. 

Back to the finish and the Champs Elysees.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  The Champs or if you need a translation--Elysian Fields—offers visuals like no other place in the world.  It is quite possibly the most expensive street on the globe.   At just over one mile in length the avenue is lined with Chestnut trees and stretches from the Place de Concorde (the largest public square in Paris) to Place de Charles de Gualle (an intersection of twelve roadways).

The Champs Elysees was first constructed in 1616 and was a market center.  It is rough, bumpy and cobblestoned.  Maybe you saw some of that as Mark Cavendish crossed the finish line.  Louis XIV saw the importance of the Champs Elysees and commissioned landscape architects to spruce up the rising thoroughfare.  In 1709 the work was completed and the avenue was first christened Champs Elysees.  Champs is French for fields while Elysees comes from Greek mythology and is a variation of the word Elysian.  For the Greeks it was believed that a special heaven existed for the mortal relatives of their gods.  That heaven was the Elysian Field.  

The merchants along the Champs Elysees belong to an association first formed in 1860.  It is the oldest still active collection of shopkeepers in Paris.  If it is upscale shopping that you crave then the Champs has it.  Only the best is sold on the avenue and at high premiums.  In order to pay the high rents the merchants sell items at the high end.  As the Champs moves north you should expect to pay more.  At the north end of the avenue the rents increase significantly due to the extended amount of sunlight the merchants covet. 

The next big thing coming to the Champs Elysees will be the annual Christmas lighting.  Each Chestnut tree and storefront is illuminated each holiday season beginning in November.  

Please visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net.  Our partner Performance Bike is having a huge summer sale.