Hi
I think parking close by might be tricky. There's a large car park outside the mine at the point where the riders enter, but when I was there it was the day before the race and already looked pretty full (loads of people in camper vans). There's a small carpark at the exit, but I'd be surprised if they'd let you park there on race day.
Contacting the local tourist board is a good suggestion!
Hi, thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I've contacted tourist information at a few places around and nobody has replied. Its quite frustrating as the same thing happens at the Tour de France, they almost always have disabled access places at the beginning and end of a stage. You need to be telepathic as they never tell you where they are or how to gain access.
On the Champs Elysees a few years ago I must have writted a dozen emails to the UCI and Tourist information but not one person replied.
I was in France anyway, so a couple of days before the final stage I went up and down the Champs looking for a handicapped area. I found one getting constructed at Concorde, I asked an official looking guy how do I get on here. he shrugged his shoulders and just said get here early.
So I arrived at 8am - nobody about, there was no seats, just tiered staging. I went along to a Carrefour (I use a Brompton instead of a wheelchair) and bought a camping chair and sat there till about 3pm. Then two bouncers came along and told me to leave. I remonstrated and they called the police, the police came along and got intouch with a high up official, he came along, could clearly see I was disabled and let me stay. He even asked if I needed anyone to assist me, I said my wife does but she cant get in now. So he went away, found her and let her in, top man.
Not one other disabled person was in that area, it must have held over 100 people if they had only let people know where it was.
