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Give Today - Change Tomorrow

July 13 /  July 15 / July 16 / July 16 evening / July 17  / July 18 / July 18 evening

July 19 / July 20 / July 21 / July 22 / July 23 / July 23 evening / July 24

July 16

   It was a short night because we had to be out of the room by 8:30. We saw some of the Tour crew coming in as we were leaving. They had probably been working all night on the mountain top setting up for today. I hope they had a portable air-conditioner if they were going to try to sleep in our room during the hot day!

   Ilene and John, some LAF friends stopped by the car while we were packing up. They were on their bikes ready to ride. Ilene's bike had been lost by the airlines, so she found a bike shop and bought a new one. She said she was on a cycling vacation and she was going to have a bike! When they got back to their hotel with the new bike, the airline had just delivered the one they lost. She said it was tough explaining to the French bike shop why she was bringing the new bike back after just a few minutes, but they finally understood and gave them a refund on the bike, helmet, shoes and all.

    We went down and bought a pizza at our favorite pizza place in France. I guess it’s the mix of 5 cheeses that we love, but we get one every time we’re here. The last time we ate it for breakfast and then rode up the final climb that day. That was a huge mistake that we would not make again. This time we packed it on the bike to eat after we reached our destination on the mountain. We met several Americans as we were standing by our car. I guess we stand out as Americans with all the Lance/LAF signage around us because Americans always seem to ask us for Tour information, but most of the time we can answer them because we’ve done it so many times. It fun though because we meet so many people. We spoke to Kristina from New Jersey, that was parked next to us. She ended up walking over to the Tourism Office with Angie while I waited on her boyfriend to tell her where she went. He was pretty surprised when he walked up to his car and I greeted him by name. Angie was trying to get the Tourism Office to help us find a room for tonight in Saint Lary but they didn't speak any English, so Kristina translated, but they couldn't find a room. They said it was all complete (full) because the Tour de France was coming through there. No kidding! Angie came back from the Tourism Office with more friends. One of the guy’s wristband had broken, so she brought him back to replace it. We always keep a few extra’s with us. We met another couple from Colorado that needed info on where the race finished today and tomorrow, so we showed them our map and helped them, also. We invited everyone to meet us in Paris for the finish, as well.

   We drove our car away from town and then loaded up the tandem and rode back and started up Ax 3 Domaines, the final climb of the day. We park our car away from town so that when the race is over we can ride through the backup up traffic, toss the bike in the car and get out of town quicker. We loaded up all of our supplies, water pizza, LAF signs and banners. As we were about to start our ascent, we met Celia Cole and Cathy Mehl. We met them at the Tour de Georgia in April. Celia is a photographer and Cathy a writer. They had talked about coming to the Tour but had almost dismissed the idea. I emailed Cathy a picture of us with Lance at the finish last year and wrote, “This could be you on the Champs Elysees”. She wrote me back and said’ “We’re coming!” Glad to see that they made it. As we approached the climb we saw several blue flags with a yellow cross on them. We recognized them as Chechu's Fan Club. We pulled over and asked for Carolina and Raul. We met Anna, another of Chechu's sisters, and her husband told us that Carolina was in Ecuador on some type of educational exchange. We were so disappointed to miss her. She is so much fun to party with on the mountain. Can't believe she is missing the Tour. We did talk to Raul and gave him a Discoveryellow t-shirt that we brought for him. He promised to send us a CD of his pictures that he has taken of us and Chechu. He asked when we were coming to Spain, so we said we'll try to go to the Vuelta next year and see them. He invited us to stay with him and said he would give us a tour of the area. We took a few pictures and headed on up the climb.

   As we were climbing the mountain we passed some of the crazy Basque Fans. These guys had been drinking for a while and were dressed in orange bikinis, wigs and flip-flops complete with bunny ears and a fluffy tail. You see all kinds on the mountains over here!

   Our climb up Ax 3 was tough, about 9K at 7.3%. We stopped to rest and Angie looked down and saw a 4 leaf clover so we setup there, between 4 & 5 K to the summit. Had to be our lucky spot and we don’t like to be too close to the end because they put up barricades and you just can’t get as close to the action. Angie needs room to cheer and dance, also.

   We met more people as they passed by our LAF area. Americans stop to talk and many want to take pictures of our signs, take pictures of themselves in front of our signs or sometimes take pictures of Angie and me. One guy stopped, looked at our signs and just laughed and said, “I see you guys every year!” That’s really fun to hear because at least we know people remember seeing the LAF/LiveSTRONG signs. We met more people today from California, Rhode Island, Colorado, Texas, Oregon and Illinois. Our buddy Ted Arnold, with the tour group, was just up the mountain from us and he brought us some fruit and water also.

   The caravan soon passed by and tossed their treasures to us. We usually don’t make much of an effort for their junk, but today we got lots of water from the Aquarel trucks (it’s really hot) some dark chocolate and amazingly a beer sponsor was passing out cold beer – free! Could you imagine floats at Mardi Gras passing out free beer to any outstretched hand??? Lots of things are different here.

   The riders were on us soon. It gets so exciting and load when they pass by. Motocycles and officials cars leading and following the cyclists and everyone screaming and cheering, it’s a rush. Lance passed by with Ullrich and Basso. They were a few seconds behind the leader, but he was way down in the GC. Several other Discovery riders passed by soon afterwards which is always a good sign that they are riding up front. When George came by Angie asked him if he wanted some water and got a polite, “No Thanks”. Chechu was there shortly and Angie said, “Chechu do you want some water?” “Yes, Thank you”, as he took the bottle from her. Don’t we have the most polite riders in the Peloton!

   After all the riders passed we loaded up and headed down the mountain. The fun meter goes way up on the decent compared to the pain of the climb. Angie gets a bit nervous because it’s so steep, but she gets distracted as the riders pass us on the way down. The team busses are all parked at the bottom of the climb, so the riders get to the finish, then just turn around and ride back down. George pulled up beside us and we congratulated him on his day, to which we got a “Thanks”. There were big crowds around the busses as we rode passed, but we didn’t stop because it would only slow us down getting out of the traffic. The riders jump on the busses ASAP anyway.

July 15 / July 16 evening