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We ended up eating pizza for breakfast because the great little pizza place we found last year was open. We sat in the little square by the Saturday morning market and had pizza and Diet Coke – breakfast of champions!

We bought some water and snacks at Le Petite Casino, then Jerry put the tandem together. We loaded our packs and were surprised in a bad way by how much weight we had added to the bike. When we started riding, we were a little wobbly because of the new weight on the back. The people along side the road cheered for us as we passed. There are not many tandems around, especially climbing those mountains! We waved back in appreciation. Our low gear was giving us some problems, so we had to stop and do some adjustments. We needed that gear for this mountain. Jerry got the front gear working, but we were still short one in the back. Bummer, but it was better. We made it to one of the spots we had picked from yesterday and stopped.

A nice couple originally from Illinois who were doing Missionary work in Spain stopped and talked with us a while. Our big Lance Armstrong Foundation signs always attract some attention and most Americans stop to talk to us. One of the Cutters came by on his bike. Tom, who dressed like Uncle Sam last year, was writing for Trek and Nike and was riding around on a brand new Trek bike. Tom said they five people from last years Cutters group and Shamu (of course). One had just left to go back home for his wedding.

Later a really nice couple from Austin stopped, Carol and Amon Burton. Amon was riding his bike while Carol was walking. This was also their third year following the Tour. They were traveling with friends and had just come over from Barcelona.

The caravan came by throwing key chains, water, cheese and some cards. They always throw stuff at Angie because they like the cheerleader pompoms. The helicopters were overhead about an hour later, so we knew the riders were close. There were a few riders off the front, closely followed by US Postal’s Chechu. This was a little confusing to us because Chechu is normally leading Roberto, then Lance up the final climb of the day. Must be some tactical assignment Johan came up with. The Tour can be decided by some critical tactical team decisions that are made. It’s really not about one guy riding fastest for three weeks. The main GC contenders were soon on us. Roberto was leading Lance with Jan Ullrich right behind. Another group followed later with the remaining US Postal riders. We cheered for George and Floyd as they passed. George looked over at us as he went by. After the last riders passed, we packed up the tandem and headed down the mountain. About halfway down we saw Chechu’s fan club, including his sister Carolina, that we had met last year. They yelled at us at the same time we saw them so I stopped the bike and Angie ran back and hugged Carolina. She ran over to our bike and hugged and kissed me too! She spoke a little more English this year. They gave us Chechu Fan Club hats and made us honorary members. We gave them one of our “Tour de Lance” shirts, which she immediately put on. We took pictures and kissed again and said goodbye. We made it back to our car, which we had left in front of our hotel, and unpacked. The streets were closed because of so much traffic, so we sat at the café and had one of our favorites – panache (beer and lemonade). The roads opened soon and started moving slowly so we left for our next destination. We had a long way to go and it got dark on us long before we reached our destination. We passed the monument to Fabio Casertelli, Lance’s Motorola teammate that was killed in 1995. It’s a cool white stone of a bike wheel with angel wings and Olympic rings. There were many flowers that had been left around it. The riders would pass by it tomorrow. Lance always seems to ride well on the days they pass this, so maybe tomorrow will be the same. We reached a town at the base of tomorrows climb and tried to find a hotel there, so we wouldn’t have to drive the remaining 34 kilometers to the hotel where we had a reservation. We were beat and it was already 11:00. No luck, so we drove on to our hotel. It was a long slow 34 K climb to our hotel, which was at the top of a mountain ski resort. It kept getting creepier as we went also. No lights, no other cars, no houses, no other hotels, no sign of life except for the foxes and cows we saw along the side of the road. Suddenly we were in the clouds and it was so foggy we almost couldn’t see. We reached the summit and saw our hotel. One little light on outside, but nothing in the hotel. We went to the entrance and of course it was locked. We banged and knocked and hollered but nobody was around. It was like we were in a Scooby Doo Episode and we were ready for the creepy Inn keeper or ghost to appear. Angie said NO WAY were we staying at the top of this mountain and sleeping in the car and I agreed, so back down we went. We drove passed the same cows and foxes through the fog to the bottom of the mountain and found a camping area so I pulled in and parked. It’s about 1:00am now. We knew this might have been the worst travel day for us, but we didn’t plan on it being quite this bad. We sleep in the car tonight.

July 18 (Stage 12) / July 20 (Stage 14)