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.