Stage 16 - Wow, too much excitement to relay

Today is the first time we've ever been at the finish line (a.k.a. Arriveé). It's crazy here as everything (i.e., press trucks, cars and commentators; team cars, trucks & buses) ends up in this place (a tiny skiing village in the middle of the Alpes).

We left super early this morning (6AM) in order to get through the mountain passes before they shut them down. Because of this, we arrived in Jausiers around 8AM and had our run of the place before they put up all of the security fences (see Angel's photo on the winner's podium). We watched as they painted the logos on the street t the finish line and then used a flame thrower to dry it. We arrived earlier enough to have morning coffee and pain with all of the techies who had been there are night setting up the media village and were having some breakfast before heading to the bars in the village. And then, we walked the the kilometer from the finish to the flame rouge (1km to go banner).

As if this wasn't enough, we wandered past the Versus TV truck and sure enough, Phil and Paul were having their morning coffee before starting the broadcast. We had a nice chat with them and grabbed a few photos. (We're actual sitting along side a river with their broadcast truck in the background.) For those unfamiliar with Phil and Paul, they are the voice of the TdF in the English-speaking world. Phil has commentated for upwards of the past 40 years of the Tour. Then, on our way back to the car, we ran into Johann Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong's Director Sportif for all seven of his TdF victories (both on US Postal and later with the Discovery Channel). His current team, Astana, wasn't invited to this year's Tour.

Later in the day we saw Bob Roll, a colorful commentator for Versus, former professional cyclist, and author of perhaps one of the funniest books I've ever read. (We also caught Robbie Ventura interviewing Augustyn after the race (the cyclist who lost his bike down the side of the mountain -- I think that I actually was in the background of the shot) while watching for Chipotle riders to roll past.

In our early scouting, we discovered a secret back pathway that allowed us to get around most of the security even when it was fully employed. This also enabled us to be in the fenced-in area that all of the cyclist rolls through after the stage... We were right their in the press scrums, every single rider, team car, etc. As the riders came through, they were all pretty tired looking but were laughing and talking with each other, even with members of the the other teams.

A bonus about positioning ourselves 100m to the finish was the super swag they hand out at the end. Wow, stuff we've only seen on TV. When about half of the riders were through, we ran to our car to get a jump on the rush that would clog one of only two ways out of town and over the mountains. I'm not sure we could ever recreate today (sorry friends who want to join us next year -- it certainly was one of our all-time best TdF experiences!