Picture: Turin Welcome by Asif B It should have been an easy ride from Lyon down through the Italian border and to Turin and then Milan. It didn't turn out that way.
As the first vehicles arrived at the border they were greeted by an arc of French border police. It was clearly pre-arranged. As lorries and cars sped across unaccosted VP5 vans were flagged down, each person had to hand over a passport and then that was phoned in to, presumably, police computer operators. Many of them were also searched - 'What, no weapons?' the senior police officer joked. Possibly!
The process meant that the convoy was split and each van left on its own into the Frejus tunnel which leads to Italy. Two hours later the last van was allowed to leave.
This meant that the day's programme had to be substantially curtailed as the delay wiped out several of them. However the Italian police were much more accommodating, dozens of motorcycle cops were on hand to escort the convoy into Turin, passing dozens of supporters, several of whom sent off smoke flares of welcome.
After a rally in beautiful Castle Square in the dying sunlight the vans set off for Milan and the first night under canvas.
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