New Page 1

We checked out of the hotel and packed up our stuff for the day. There was a bakery on the way and we picked up breakfast and headed to the finish. A group from Austin invited us to sit with them, but Jerry wanted to be in front of the jersey presentation stage. It was a small area between two camera positions about 50 yards past the finish line. So we ended up behind a French family to claim our space, but we knew we would soon get squeezed in by a bunch of not-very-fresh-smelling people. In the small mountain towns the people have been very friendly, but when we get in the finish areas on flat stages in bigger towns, it seems like invitations are sent out: please don’t shower for two weeks, meet at the stage finish and crowd around as close as possible at least three hours before the riders arrive even though there is nothing to see! We knew we would face this where we were, but I wanted some pictures of Lance getting the day’s yellow jersey and he would see our LAF sign to know that we were there supporting him.

The crowd didn’t disappoint us. They jammed in hours before the scheduled arrival time, and the two ladies right behind us drove me nuts complaining (in French, but we understood) about our cooler and how we were taking up too much space. I decided to retaliate by shuffling a deck of cards for about an hour straight. They kept looking at the cards, then me, then the cards, then they would say something to each other. I just sat and watched people walk by like I was totally unaware that I was even shuffling the cards. It amused me and was small consolation to put up with their odor and lack of respect for personal space since we were at the spot long before they got there anyway.

The day passed way too slow, but ended great as Tyler Hamilton broke away and won the stage and Lance kept his lead and the yellow jersey! Tyler’s shoulder is obviously still hurting because he couldn’t hold the flowers and trophy at the same time. I took pictures of Tyler and Lance, then Angie and I left the area and headed toward the US Postal bus to try and see the guys before they left. We finally got through the crowd and were almost to the bus as it started pulling off. We were too late. Just then a single Postal car was coming down the road toward me. I held up our LAF sign and the guys waved. As they pulled up beside me, the back window rolled down and it was Lance! He said, “Hey, how are you guys doing?” What a surprise!! I said hey back and the car scooted away after the bus. A TV newsman saw what happened and asked to talk to us. I answered a couple of questions, but got tongue tied, so Angie took over and finished our interview. We were stopped again by a lady from NY who saw our LAF sign—it always attracts attention.

We thought the day was going to end well too because we were able to make it to Bordeaux quickly with the sun still up, but we were WRONG! Bordeaux sucked. The entire town had road construction going on. We drove around for hours—there were so many deviations (detours) and one-way streets; it was maddening! When we finally found our hotel it was all locked up. Everyone was gone. It was more of an apartment then hotel, but either way, we couldn’t get in. We were so disgusted with the whole town; it was not quaint like we expected, but a big dirty city with graffiti and alleys/roads that led nowhere! We drove back down the route to a small town the riders would hit before Bordeaux and finally found a room around 11:30 pm. The hotel had air conditioning and room service until midnight. So we were feeling good again, Tyler had won the stage, Lance stopped to say hello and we’d found a nice hotel and a good spot to watch for tomorrow and dinner was on the way.

July 22 (Rest Day) / July 24 (Stage 17)