Hautes Pyrenees

Le Tour is back in the high mountains, now we have moved from the Alps to the Pyrenees. John and I had a chance to squeeze in a ride, and what better ride to do than a climb to the top of the Col du Tourmalet? Though you can just see the top of the Tourmalet from where we are staying, we're still working and need to check in daily with the teams when possible. Hence, we did not have time to ride the 55km from here to the top. We decided to drive partway, then hop out and ride. On the drive, we went past riders who did have the time to ride from further away, and as we went there were more and more of them. By the time we started riding, there was constant bike traffic.

Above is the view from La Mongie, 3km from the top.

about 15km into the ride we were definitely climbing, and the valley opened up enough to see the top of the Tourmalet.

There are little towns along the road at the lower part, where there is still enough surrounding flat land to hold an entire town. I don't know why, but in this town someone was very excited to see me.
Here's the view to the top from very early on in the ride. At this point I just assumed that the one with the towers on top was the right mountain.
Up at La Mongie the scenery was this. There were thousands of people too, but I liked the rocks better.

We got to a spot where there was a little break in the crowd, just enough to stand right on the roadside. Now we just had to wait. The caravan came through, and John and I got some swag - spotty hats, water, and a pack St Michel madeleines"le Madeleine officiel au Le Tour de France" (some sponge cakes). Here is me and my hat:

We waited and waited, and got in a little nap. And then waited. Eventually we saw the helicopters and everyone jumped up and got excited.
It was a tease though, the helicopters were just getting long shots for scenery I guess.
Finally, the real race came through - a small break. Lance was in it! Pretty cool, especially because they had a BIG gap. The break would stay away all day, and the stage would have the fastest time ever for that route through the Pyrenees.
I got a photo of Chris Horner:



Here is what happens when sprinters have to climb. Bernie Eisel towed Mark Cavendish up the Tourmalet. They did manage to catch on on the descent, but they were well back here. Eisel saved his bacon. They were the very last riders to come through.

When the road was clear(er) we climbed the rest of the way to the top.

And posed for the photographers.

they'll be climbing up this side on Thursday. It looks even worse than the side we came up. (as I write this, it is an hour to the start, and still raining)

Good luck lads, you may need it on the descents today.
Bon Courage!