AP PHOTOS: Tour de France cyclists pass by in a flash

For most of those living along the route of the 109th edition of the Tour de France, the race is usually experienced from the side of the road.

Often quiet villages and sleepy mountain towns are transformed into a festival of cycling fans sporting costumes and cheering every passing vehicle until the cyclists arrive.

The Associated Press captured the quotidian amid the spectacle, how the race was experienced from inside the quiet spaces and homes that became the setting for the world’s most prestigious bicycle race.

Dishes sit unwashed as the yellow jersey passes by the window, a mother and daughter film the peloton in the distance from their garden, a television beams the race into an empty living room.

Each scene is a reminder of how the rolling spectacle transforms a home for just a moment before leaving it as it was.

This is the peculiar magic of the Tour de France; an event that spans an entire country and lasts a whole month, but only passes by any given point in mere seconds.

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