Albi, 25th of April, 2013
With the third of five days driving though the French countryside
the Tour Auto is already more than halfway through. Early at 7:00
am the competition classes sorted by age left the parc fermé in
Vichy for a 459 km tour south to Albi, the capitol of the
département Tarn in the Midi-Pyrenees. Unlike the previous two
days the landscape became more and more interesting during the
day with small hillside roads running through the forest, smaller
mountain passes and passing through narrow villages. Because
of a long and cold winter in central Europe the vegetation is not as
green as in previous years as many trees are still wearing their
winter outfit but the last couple of warmer days boosted the green
on the meadows decked with flowers, so the atmosphere is very
much between the seasons. The long cold period also kept the
snow on the surrounding mountains when driving over one of the
passes on the way. The first of these passes was the Col de
Serre on the way to the morning special stage at Thiezac just
before the lunch stop. When sitting in front of the Chateau de
Pesteils on could hear the later classes blasting through the
small mountain roads as the engine sound was echoed to the
other side of the valley.
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Just after the lunch another 50 miles led to the Villecomtal and
the second special stage of the day. Unfortunately in the
afternoon the sky clouded up a little bit after nice sunshine in the
morning but it stayed dry all day long. After the special stage
another 80 miles had to be driven before the convoy entered Albi,
with a nice drive through the old town centre with the crossing
over the Tarn and a passing of the Cathedral.
Finally the cars arrived at the circuit of Albi with the attached
exhibition centre that saw the race of the day and also serves as
the parc fermé for the night. Although this is very easy for the
logistic as the mechanics have the needed space and time to
prepare the cars for the races and the next day and the numerous
hotels near the exhibition centre this also meant that the races
were held very late. Whereas the competition classes were able
to finish their race before dusk the regularity class was running
late into the dark as the last cars were still busy at 21:30 pm,
long after sunset.
After the third day Carlos Monteverde took over the lead in his AC
Cobra as the three frontrunners of the previous days were all
dropped back with a penalty, presumable for overtime work by the
mechanics in the car park. This will keep the TA interesting as in
Albi again a lot of work had to be carried out. Yesterday we
reported on a back axle change at a Ferrari 250 GT SWB, after a
repair until 3:30 am the car was back on the road this morning
leaving a very satisfied driver and a tired mechanic.
The regularity class has the traditional short night today as the
chronological order will change for the fourth day with the
regularity running in front of the competition for the last two days.
Tomorrow will be the race free day with a 476 km drive to Limoges
and one could be curious what the landscape will look like
tomorrow as this changes sometimes from departement to
departement. Albi was the turning point of this year's TA as the
road will head north to the Massif Central again.
Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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