28 July

(Jerry)The road to Paris is almost over. We knew we had to be on the Champs Elysees early to get a good spot. Angie and I wanted to be close to the Arc, but a couple of American groups were gathering near the finish further down so went, against our better judgment, and met the other groups. We had seen several people the previous two weeks. The Cutters were there with Shamu and Captain Ted from Austin and more Americans stopped as they saw American and Texas flags and of course our LAF sign. We met more Americans from New York, California, Texas, Geneve, Thailand, Canada and more I can’t even remember. Several people ask me about the LAF. One guy from Chicago’s dad had recently died of cancer and he wanted to make a donation. I told him to go to www.laf.org and follow the instructions there. I talked to a couple of other people and I think I convinced to come to Austin for next year’s Ride for the Roses in October 2003. Almost every photographer shot the LAF sign and I did a little interview with an AP reporter.

The day was hot, just like the past two weeks had been. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin, the OLN announcers were trying to tape an intro near us and we yelled and waved enough to get them to come over to us when they finished. Paul signed a picture of us with him and our LAF sign from last year and they both signed one of the “4 and counting” signs I had made for everybody to hold up around us. The hateful French police kept harassing us for getting over the barricades while we got Phil and Paul to sign things and when we were hanging our signs. The riders were still hours away, but they insisted on being a pain in the butt. The sun finally got below the trees on our side of the street, which helped the heat. The crazy caravan passed us for the last time and about an hour later the riders arrived on the Champs Elysees! The excitement built until we finally saw the long Blue Postal Train with Lance in tow, in yellow, followed by the Peloton. It is incredible. They roll down to the Arc de Triomphe, swing around and fly back with the Postal Train still leading the way. They ride ten laps around the Champs Elysees and the other teams start breaking up the group after US Postal leads the first lap. We blow off as many pictures as we can each time they pass. It’s over all too soon and Lance has number FOUR in the books! We’re close enough to see the final jersey awards, white for best young rider, green points jersey, polka dot for King of the Mountains and of course, the Yellow jersey to Lance. Lance holds one of the twins, Kristen the other and Luke buries his face, being shy today. The victory laps start and each team makes a lap with US Postal being the last team. We cheered for all the teams but especially the American riders. Levi Leipheimer, with US Postal last year, got off his bike and jumped the barricades to shake hands with our group and toss out hats of his Rabobank team. It was really nice to see him have a good ride this year. We had such a good time visiting with his brother and dad a few days ago. I’m sure they were very proud.

The crazy Cutters got antsy and jumped the first barricades before the Postal team got to us, so we followed. It only put us 8’ closer and really shouldn’t have bothered anyone. The photographers all liked it because they were all setting up for when Lance got around to us. The French police, on the other hand decided we were a problem and dispatched most of the Gendarmerie right in front of us. They slowly climbed the barricades and made us all move back, then stayed right in front of us so the photographers couldn’t even get good shots of the American Flags as the Postal team got to us. Even the photographers were begging the police to move. And to top it off, they were so obsessed with us that they didn’t notice that on the opposite side of the street people were pouring into the street over the barricades, so by the time Lance got to us he was surrounded by who knows who that had jumped into the street from the other side. The French dropped the ball, big time on that one. Lance plowed his way in front of us and gave a firm wave of acknowledgement as he pointed to our group. He knew we were there, for sure! The rest of the Posties past and it was all over. Two weeks of chasing for us was all through, but Lance had number four and we were happy to have been there to support him.

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