Day 13

Nothing to report regarding a ride. Today, I chilled with the fam. It is Matt's 19th birthday and we spent it waiting for 5 hours for the Tour to roll through. We began the day with a 2 km walk up Alpe d'Huez to a little beyond the first switchback. The fam was huffing and puffing. They got a little taste of climbing these hills. We hung out there for a bit and then drifted back down to the base of the climb. It was a warm day and sunny. We found a spot in the shade in a bend of the road just before the real start of the climb.

Matt and I walked about a mile into the nearest town to gather some groceries. While there, we also snagged some camper seats, to avoid sitting on the ground and some rice mats to roll out and relax a bit while waiting for several hours. We also grabbed the vacation staples: cookies, pringles, coke, kit-kat bars, water and for the junk food part of the meal, nectarines. We killed time until the Tour Caravan rolled past. This is the caravan of cars with media and sponsors of the TdF. They throw all kinds of trinkets. We had some decent separation between the group of people prior to us and our spot. It is a little like a moving Halloween. As the Caravan rolls past, they throw things to the crowd. Since we had some space, the throwers had some time to re-load. We got a fair share of loot (junk). I think the fam was entertained by this.

Then the race came through. It was a hot pace. There were three off the front (I think), by about 1:30. All of the leaders were in a group of 25 or so, including 4 members from Team CSC. The CSC boys are hammers. Stuart O'Grady led them down the descent from Galabier. Cancellara then led them up the long ascent of Criox de Fer. This boy is a TT man, not a climber. He was able to stay on through the top to reattach to the lead group during the descent. Heading into the climb, it was Cancellara, Sastre, Andy Schleck and Frank Schleck. Cadel Evans was behind this train as was Christian Vandevelda. Shortly after they past us, Sastre launched up Alpe d'Huez. He won the stage by a massive margin (for this late in the tour and for a mountain stage where the leaders were all together at 15 km to go). He not only passed the few riders off the front 1:30 ahead of him, but put another 2:30 on the leaders. This caused the Yellow Jersey to change hands, but not teams. Frank Schleck out of Yellow, onto to Carlos Sastre. They made this climb look easy. It is truly impressive to watch these boys race uphill. The TV simply does not do it justice.

Tomorrow should be an easy day. Our plan is to ride 70 miles, 60% of which will be on the course tomorrow. We'll be stopping at the feed zone to wait for the tour. The fam will meet us there. This should be a good day to snag some souvenirs. As the riders roll past, they toss away water bottles, their feedbags and other junk. If we position the boys correctly, we should be able to get a few items. I think the boys are enjoying the experience.