Stage 15 -- Les Alpes, Rain, the Devil & Elvis

A few highlights right off the top... First, we met "Didi the Devil," that mythic character of European cycling who comes out to run alongside the cyclists dressed as the devil with his pitchfork in hand (he actually has an RV complete with photos of his exploits painted on the sides and a website, which I believe you can find by looking him up on Wikipedia page). Second, we saw Elvis alongside the same roadside. Third, Jonathan Vaughters (Director Sportif of the Chipotle team looked straight at me and waved (as did everyone else in the Chipotle team car. And fourth, I looked straight into the eyes of Alejandro Valverde (one of the favorites to win the overall race). For those of you who follow the Tour, you'll remember that Lance had his infamous "look" with Jan Ullrich a few years back (see an earlier post about the top 30 highlights of the TdF). I think Alejandro's look was less of him sizing me up than telling me I was in the road and he wanted me to step to the side. All the same, Alejandro and I shared what could have been an infamous moment on the slopes of the Col d'Agnel... had I not moved out of the way.

Today's post comes straight to you from the front seat of our Renault. We're parked along the road on the early slopes of Col d'Agnel (near Pierre-Grosse), and while I say "early slopes" I certainly wouldn't want to imply that it isn't still steep. It's ones of those places along the road where one side drops away to nowhere and the other is a near 90 degree wall of earth. We're parked so close to the dirt that we both have to climb out of the car on the driver's side.

Our drive this morning was relatively easy. We had breakfast at our chambre d'hôte, stopped at the Boulangerie in town to grab our daily bread and then made for the nearest supermarché to pick up some ice and still water for our pastis. The market opened at 9AM and being the only one anywhere within 20km, it looked like Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving when everyone lines up at the crack of dawn to race inside and buy GPS units for $1. I've never seen so many people run into a store to buy fruits and vegetables before!

Once again today, we drove the actual route that the cyclists will bike. (Only once we got home did we find out that the beginning of the route was changed slightly due to road slides -- wish they would have told the rest of us who drove through that area twice.) The traffic signs said that the road was to close at 10AM and sure enough, wherever we were at 10AM the Gendarmerie asked us to stop and turn around. Seeing as how they all have guns, we turned around and headed for the nearest "parking spot " we could find.

It's isn't too crowded where we're parked (well, right now it's because most people are still inside their cars) but compared with our times in the Pyrennes, this is pretty sedate. We walked up the mountain for 2km through a few Alpine villages. Along the way (exactly mid-point between the two, and what one would usually consider the middle of nowhere) it started to rain (did I mention it's sort of cold today?). Fortunately, the race has people selling TdF merchandise from vans, so we picked up an official race umbrella for 10 Euros.

On our way back to the car, we picked up a warm café au lait-type beverage some of the Tour sponsors were passing out of the sides of a truck. When we finally made if to the car it had started to rain again, so we set up our mobile TdF command center inside of the car (only leaving long enough to score some great stuff from the caravan). All in all, the rain stopped long enough for us to catch the caravan and all of the riders, before starting to pour again... not bad timing.

This stage was amazing. The riders were going slow enough that you could really get a good look, and they had time to look at you when you cheered for them. From reading the minute-by-minutes online when we got back to our place, it sounds like the stage was just as exciting from home. Oh, I did feel sorry for the person who wrote "Go Cavendish" up the roadside only to find that he withdrew from the race this morning.

We had a great day even considering the weather. Since we are staying at the same place this evening, we were able to take our time coming home -- did a little picnicking, drove over another storied mountain pass (see Col d'Izard post) and generally enjoyed our leisurely afternoon driving through the Alpes checking out the scenery, both natural and man-made.