If we do nothing, nothing will change

July 18 - Stage 14  / July 19 - Stage 15 / Rest Day / July 21 - Stage 16 / Tour Scenery / July 22 - Stage - 17

July 23 - Stage 18 / July 24 - Stage 19 / July 25 - Stage 20 / July 26 - Stage 21 / Photo Gallery

July 23 - Stage 18 Individual Time Trial

Today should have been our easiest drive by the plan. So much for plans as we fell back to one of my dad's regular sayings, "make firm plans and stay flexible." We left our hotel for a 45 minute drive to Annecy for the time trial. Should have arrived 4 to 5 hours before the riders stared. As we exited the autoroute at the Annecy exit, we pulled through the toll booth, paid our toll, then a gendarme told us we would have to turn around because the road was already closed. Would have been just as easy for him to tell us and the other hundreds of cars the road was closed before we paid the toll, but maybe it was some kind of fundraiser for them. We did some map recalculations and rerouted ourselves back to where we had started and came into Annecy from a less traveled and obviously, much less known route, only a couple of hours later than we planned. Now we had the issue of getting around the start/finish area, where we knew we did not want to be, and find a spot on the route between the climb and the finish. The crowds are not so helpful trying to navigate a tandem through and the gendarmes are doing their job by not letting us cross the course, even though the race hasn't started. Time to get creative. We rode back away from the lake (& crowd) that the course looped around and wound our way through neighbor hoods until the crowds thinned out, then pulled a couple of barricades apart (not recommended if gendarmes around, but we put them back) cut some caution tape (tied it back) and found a nice spot 2.5K from the finish. There were no other people around the area because nobody could get there. Our old Lance Armstrong Foundation friends, Ilene and John Winters had emailed us a few days ago and planned to meet us here. I sent her a text where we were and they made their way through the crowds and found us. We had a nice spot to hoist the Hope Rides Again banner on one of the huge trees that surround Lake Annecy. Lance was right, this place is really beautiful.

In spite of our driving troubles, we ended up with a great spot, portajohn 30 meters away, a guy cooking sausage dogs and selling cold beer across the road. What more could we want. A couple of hours later after the riders had been rolling by consistently, we wanted it to stop raining. Then a few minutes later we wanted it to stop hailing. Fifteen minutes later we were hoping for some shade because the sun had come out and was roasting us, so we quit wishing and had another beer. Our good Italian friends, Simone and Chiara that we met on the Col de Romme, came by and hugged us like they had known us forever. I told them I emailed the pictures I shot of him running beside Lance on the Col de Romme and he hugged me again. Chiara called her brother to check her email and he apparently told her about the pictures because they were both squealing with glee! Too funny. They finally moved on but not before singing one more chorus of Sweet Home Alabama to us! They asked us to email and stay in touch. Such a cute couple.

We had a great time visiting with John and Ilene and had fun cheering for the riders as they went by. An Astana car followed by another car went pased honking like crazy and waving out the window at us and the banner as they drove to the start line. Not sure if it was Lance or not, but they loved the banner!

We kept updated through Cathy Mehl,  one of our best friends that we made through cycling. She gave us start times and time splits so we were not in the dark. We cheered for all of our favorites and politely let the others ride by quietly. Lance passed close to us and Contador wasn't long behind, which totally wraps the day, except now we have to find our car.

Because of our crazy route in, we really didn't know where our car was. One of my favorite Blackberry programs is the googlemaps, which you can download and use the gps feature, have it use your current location and you can type an address or mark a point on the ma to find. We knew what road we drove in on, so it didn't take long to find the car. There was the rain that started again as we rode to the car. Oh, and there was the flat tire that slowed us down. Fortunately it must have been  a slow leak, because I just stopped and pumped it up once, which got us to the car. We're done riding for this trip since we head to Paris in the morning and will watch the next two stages in Paris, play a little and have a long day on the Champs on Sunday.

Guess I should mention that we never know what we'll see at the Tour. Normally the craziest folks are in the mountains and usually more so in the Pyrenees. But the woman who changed clothes a few feet away while we stood there waiting for the riders to start apparently didn't mind anyone seeing anything. And I honestly did not take pictures of her when she was facing me. Hey whatever works I guess.

I promise we saw this on the lake just as it is now. Hmm. Not sure.

Angie tried to trade me for this dog. Fortunately for me, the owner wanted his dog.