If we do nothing, nothing will change

May 21/22 Stage 13 / May 23 Stage 14 / May 24 Stage 15 / May 25 Stage 16 / May 26 Rest Day

May 27 Stage 17 / May 28 Stage 18 / May 29 Stage 19 / May 30 Stage 20 / May 31 Stage 21

May 25 - Stage 16

We had breakfast at the hotel and were once again greeted with Americans, a young couple from Raleigh, North Carolina. We walked around the town and Angie shopped some, always helps her enthusiasm. Our drive to the finish was fairly short and as usual, we were headed for the final climb. We ended up parking by the team buses, about 1k from the climb. The buses were lined up just beyond an entrance to a big road (autostrade), so we felt like we could make a clean exit after the race finished. The heat was as tough as the climb on the tandem (brutal!). I think I had forgotten, how long and hard the climbs are from the Tour de France and how bad it is climbing on a heavy tandem loaded with banners, food and water. They are having unseasonably hot weather here; it has been over 100 degrees every day! No need for the long underwear we brought!

So we rode for a while and then walked up to just before the 6k to go banner. There was a nice shady spot with a curve in the road, so we set up Camp LiveStrong. We were putting up signs and a producer with Planet ArmStrong on www.eurosport.com stopped to interview us. He got some video footage of Jerry hacking down a small tree to put up one of our signs! He was very nice, from France AND a Lance fan!

We had met a nice couple from upstate New York, Phyllis and Andy, when we were walking up, and Phyllis let Andy walk to the top without her, so she stayed with us at Camp LiveStrong. We were also joined by Luke, originally from Vermont, but lives in Italy with his wife and works at a bikeshop in Umbria. So we had a little group of fans to cheer for the riders.

Liz Kruetz, the Astana/Lance photographer, stopped by when she saw our signs. Liz is a great friend and has been working with the LAF since the very beginning. She had a rough day in the heat on the moto and looked like she’d been in the coal mines.

Dirty face Liz, our friend and great photographer!

She took the photo that was used in the Hope Rides Again banner. Yesterday she was talking and rode right by without seeing it. She said “how did I miss that?” The banner is 6’x11’ and was hanging from the trees-- really hard to miss!

The riders appeared soon and it appeared Popo from Astana would take the stage today, but we later found out that wasn’t the case. Lance gave us a wave as he passed us pulling Levi, who had a bad day and lost a couple of minutes, which likely took him out of contention for the overall. Angie’s favorite, Chechu would soon follow and he waved and always breaks into a huge smile when he hears us cheering for him.

Lance called this day his hardest ever on the bike, but still gave us a wave

We watched the rest of the rider pass, but really turned our attention to riders coming down the mountain. On the mountain top finishes, the riders often turn around and ride back to the bottom to their team bus. We wanted to give Lance a wave and thought Chechu might stop to speak, which he has done before. I saw Lance bombing down the hill but instead of riding by, he grabbed a handful of brake and came sliding in next to us. “Wanted to give you guys a quick hello before they catch me”. He hugged Angie and we said hey, then looked back and it looked like everyone on the mountain was running or riding their bikes straight at us to catch Lance. I gave him a pat on the back and yelled GO! And he took off towards the bus. I saw Chechu a couple of minutes later and he weaved through the crowd and yelled hello as he handed us his water bottle for a souvenir.

We packed up Camp LiveStrong and headed back down the mountain, then drove to our next hotel.

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More later. It’s 1:00am here after a long day. Sorry our updating has been slow. We never know if we’ve going to have any internet connection in our hotel and so far, it’s been scarce. Should get caught up tomorrow.