TdF 2005 - En France

July 18, 2005
Bonjour, people we know!

We made it safely to Lyon, rented our Peugeot and set off on a four-hour drive across the south of France with two hours of sleep (thankful that every rest stop sells espresso).

Yesterday we caught Stage 15 just before the 5km to summit banner on the Col de Val Louron-Azet (the second to last climb of the day and fourth of five mountains that they climbed during the stage). Parked the car precariously close to the edge of the mountain with the help of two older French couples we eventually befriended with our broken French throughout the day. Angel and I decided to walk to the top since we had a couple of hours to spare but made it just over a kilometre before turning around and heading back down with Angel wondering how the riders were ever going to make it over. Good news, the Tour expanded the caravan this year to include more sponsors and thus booty. Did well collecting items on our first day out and got everyone in our area of the mountain excited to participate.

The stage was amazing as the riders were getting tired and, while still moving quite quickly, were slow in comparison to the speeds they normally travel. George Hincapie (Lance's #2 man on the Discovery Team and yesterday's stage winner) looked at Angel as she was screaming for him. Lance powered by us in another break (above photo corresponds to Stage 15 video below) without any sign that we were there, but Sheryl Crow, who was riding in the passenger's seat in one of the team cars waved to both of the crazy Americans (a.k.a. us). The stage was so difficult that the field of 170 was spread out over 30-40 minutes with some riders having to complete it without any support vehicles. When Angel yelled words of encouragement to one rider from the Rabobank team he asked her if she would push him (for those Tour aficionados you know this is illegal but without anyone watching it sure happens a good bit). Five hours on the side of a mountain with some kind French couples was a great way to begin our Tour de France.

En route to our Chambres d'Hotes last night we had to drive over the Col d'Aspin. Angel kept her eyes closed most of the way up (as did I). The mountain was climbed in last year's Tour and still had visible remains of the white painted names of the riders on the road surface all the way up. By the time we reached the top we were in clouds surrounded by wild cows. Even though there were signs posted to watch out for cows in the roadway, we nearly collided with one as we were driving down the mountain -- I rounded a corner only to find a huge white cow walking straight toward us.

We had breakfast at the B&B this morning with some pilgrims who came to Lourdes to worship where the virgin Mary was spotted several times. Headed into a cave (literally) right now before moving on to Nay, birthplace of the French beret, to have café with some old French guys.

Best wishes from the Pyrenees.

Tour de France 2005 - Stage 15

In this clip from Stage 15 (the stage Hincapie won) you will see Ivan Basso attacking Lance Armstrong and Jan Ulrich. As the video begins on the left side of the screen there is a green/tan SVU, immediately after the SVU there are two picnic umbrellas that I’m standing between in khaki shorts, a yellow t-shirt and a yellow baseball cap (that one of the sponsors threw out from the caravan) and then there is our little blue car parked precariously close to the edge of the mountain.

Col d'Aspin

Col d'Aspin, France (1489m). This is the view we had when approaching the summit of the Col d'Aspin, a mountain often climbed by the cyclists during the Tour de France. The mountain was stopping the clouds from coming over. On one side of the mountain it was sunny and hot; the other rainy and cold.

Cow Crossing

Somewhere in the French countryside; waiting for the cows literally to come home, but not the same cows we almost hit the day before.

TdF 2005 - Stage 16 & 17

July 20,2005
Bonjour,

Tuesday we were on the early slopes of the Col d'Aubisque (a frightening mountain just to look at from a distance), somewhere between km 17 & 16 parked securely on the side of the road. Angel had to wrestle some Spanish children for booty by the car and told them "NON! Ne touch pas!" Saw Vinokourov launch his attack right in front of us. Lance laughed when we shouted "Go Disco" as Discovery Channel Team takes so long to say that the peloton is halfway past.

Went to Olonron and then Pau Monday night for dinner, and we ended up driving the last 20km or so of the course right over the finish line. Walked around the parking lot with all of the TV trucks.

Bought berets in Pay. Stayed in a 15th century farm house last night (that up until 8 years ago hadn't been occupied for 100 years), where Angel decided we should buy the house from the owners. Drove through several large sunflower fields this morning at which Angel took multiple pictures. Today we find ourselves on the side of the road just after Pouy-de-Touges in the feed zone. Hoping that we'll be able to wrestle any discarded water bottles and feed bags away from all of the kids in the area.

(Update: We stood right by the Discovery car and Angel caught a T-Mobile water bottle.)

Top Photo: The peloton passing us on the Col d'Aubisque;
Bottom Photo: Hincapie leading Discovery Channel through the feeding station.

Au revior.

TdF 2005 - Stage 18

July 21, 2005
Bonjour,

Today finds us again loading our car with litres of water, baguettes, fromage and Nutella and sitting on the side of yet another mountain in France.

We're parked right before the town of Peyrelade (68.5km from the start and 120.5 km to the finish). After yesterday’s feed zone excitement today's stage was pretty ordinary... small break away, Discovery leading the peloton and Lance deep in conversation with some guy from the Rabobank team. The team cars were more excited to see us today than the riders.

Yesterday, we had to drive some of today's stage to get to our Chambres d'Hotes. As we rounded one of the mountains we found ourselves staring straight at a huge canyon and beautiful new bridge that connects Paris to the south of France. I'm sure for those of you following along at home OLN will have some great shots of it from the air. It is quite an impressive site.

Speaking of OLN, we miss the play-by-play commentary of Phil, Paul and Bob throughout the stage. Listening to the French commentary on the radio or television makes everything sound like something important is happening. Thankfully the Treo usually has service so we can get updates en location to know what's happening by the time the breakaways and peloton roll by us.

We had an issue with sunscreen yesterday and both ended up red and hurting. A wonderful French meal with some wine grown and bottled right down the street helped ease the pain. Walked along one of the back alley rues and ran into a wooden foot bridge that had two white swans swimming beneath it (that Angel wanted to take home with us). Can you carry a swan onto a plane?

After driving on about 60km of winding and rough road anywhere in the world, we have arrived at our stopping point for the day, the quaint village of Saugues.

Hope you're all well and keeping up with the Tour on OLN.

Top Photo: The aforementioned bridge;
Bottom Photo: The peloton coming up the mountain.

TdF 2005 - Literally In A Ditch

July 25, 2005
Bonjour Everyone,

The final stage of our Tour de France was spent on lawn chairs in ditch on the side of the Col de la Gachet (a 3rd category climb at the 40km mark of the 55,5km individual time trial). We parked in a wheat field at the top of the mountain and walked down to our spot. There were some crazy people on the mountain yesterday, and we weren't even close to being considered for that group (I won't repeat some of the things they had painted on the street).

The mountain was lined in people as it was too narrow for vehicles to park where we were standing. There is a great communal sense that envelopes the Tour, especially after you've spent hours on end with the people standing and picnicking around you. We had a whole afternoon's worth of conversation with the older French men standing next to us using only the words "(George) Hincapie", "New York City", and "oui", and a few hand gestures here and there. The Dutch people across the street (more of a country lane than a street) showed us the time splits on their cell phone stop watch (and gave us each a piece of gum), and we exchange a few "great day for a time trial" and "poor Rasmussen" (you'll know what that means if you caught the stage today, but in short any guy who has to change his bike three times in 55km and flies head-over-heels into a ditch is having a bad day) with their far-better English.

The cyclists came by one at a time every 2 to 3 minutes. It was one of those stages where people pack the road and a thin line opens up to let the cyclist pass through. When you watch on TV it's the kind where Angel gets nervous about the spectators colliding with the cyclists and talks to them in hopes that they will hear her and move out of the way. I'm sure a couple of times today during the 155 times a biker rolled by we were a bit too close but everything turned out fine in the end. You just get so excited and they are right there, RIGHT there so much if you don't jump off the road sometimes they'll hit you. Since they only pass every couple of minutes between riders everyone floods the street to talk and stand in someshade. As soon as you hear the next motorcycle siren people go back to their spots on the road to cheer and repeat the process all over again.

Angel wants you to know that on Thursday at our Chambres d'Hotes dinner when the fromage course came and I asked our host what a particular one was called he said, I don't know, it comes from the house over there, and he pointed to a house on the other side of the valley.

After putting about 2,500km on our car since last Saturday we're now trying to figure out how to pack all of the caravan booty, direction signs, and PMU sprint point hands. If all goes well we'll be on our flight tomorrow afternoon from Lyon and will speak with you all soon.

Hope you have enjoyed at least a bit or two from our roadside Tour updates.

Oh yeah, so Lance won the stage today and it was incredible! He and Jan Ullrich powered up the mountain like they were machines (see above photos, top Lance, bottom, Jan). Everyone else looked like they were just out for a leisurely stroll in the mountains.

Until next year.

TdF 2005 - Stage 19, Three To Go...

July 24, 2005
Bonjour from the French countryside,

Following Thursday's stage we continued our drive out of the mountains and today finds us just past the village of Usson-en-Forez between two category 4 climbs (essentially hills I would try to avoid if possible but nothing like the category 1s and HCs (beyond category climbs) earlier this week. Angel tried her hand at some road art. Of course, all of the stores in the area have sold out of the large kiddie chalk so she's seeing how many letters are possible to write with regular size pieces. Not many... "Allez Lance" has been cut to "Go Lance" and we're not sure about "I Love Bob Roll and OLN TV." Unfortunately, every time a car rolls by she has to go back and touch it up. The way it's going it probably won't last through the caravan. I guess it's the thought that counts and is certainly giving the other people picnicking around us something to talk about.

We found our spot and parked a good five hours to go before the riders roll through (most of the good spots had already been claimed by that point--these people start early) so we ambled down into town to kill some time. Yet another quaint little French village in the middle of nowhere that offered some tasty pain au chocolat and café.

After several days of hot, sunny days in the mountains (and a bit of a sunburn) we're glad to have a few clouds and a light breeze for today's stage. We've learned that the French are incredibly fond of spray water in a can so we bought some to fit in. Hoping it doesn't rain for tomorrow's time trial stage though as we'll be sitting on the road watching each of the 170 or so riders bike by individually over 4-5 hours--it's going to be awesome!

Hope you're all well and staying cool back in the states.