Last day on the Tour

I had this all written last night, but it was taking 5-10 minutes to upload each picture because of the slow connection, so at 12:30 am I decided to finish it in the morning.  Today is Michael's birthday and we are celebrating with dinner in the Eiffel Tower.  A great way to spend our last night in France.

Day
6

Last
night we drove an hour and ½ to Aix En Provence to stay for the night.  When the tour goes through an area, the
hotels fill up quickly, and so it makes people have to stay farther out.  The towns have been smaller with not a
whole lot of hotels so that adds to the problem as well.  The riders stay in several different
towns.  The Sky team has a ton of
money and they actually bring their own mattresses and take out the ones that
are in the rooms so they can be sure to get a good night sleep. 

Our
hotel was a quaint hotel that was really neat.  It is a family run place that has been passed down for
generations.  The food was very
good.  Here are a couple pictures
of the hotel.

 

This
was on our drive. 

 

This
is our last day to be a part of the tour. 
This stage begins in Sisteron.

 

Being
on the tour with Custom Getaways gave us special passes to the 3 days.  It really made seeing the tour an
amazing experience since we could be right by the riders.  Today with our wrist bands were able to
go in a VIP area with all kinds of free food. It is amazing all the set up and take down that happen each day as the tour travels from town to town.

 

This is a stack of crepes!

 

This
guy was painting this in the VIP area.

 

More
VIP pictures, notice the guy balancing his bike on top of the light post. 

 

After
we went through the VIP area we went with our same passes to the team bus
area. 

 

We
could not believe how we could be right in by the cyclists. 

 

This
is Thor Hushovd He is wearing the Green Jersey since he is top sprinter.  

 

Michael’s
favorite sprinter Cavendish.  He
actually won today! 

 

Current
King of the Mountain Jerome Pineau (gets the polk-a-dot kit)

 

He even had a polk-a-dot bike!

Current
USA road racing champion (he gets the stars and stripes kit) George Hancapie

 

The
white one is Lance’s bike.  Next to his bus were 3 Radio Shack cars and each one had a duplicate bike for each rider.  That way if there is a problem with any of their bikes, they have one close by to give them.

 

Alberto
Contador 2^nd place, and expected champion.

 

It
was neat to see how the race begins. 
The racers show up in their busses just over an hour ahead of the
race.  When it is hot out they stay
in the bus until it is close to start time.  They have to sign in up on this stage before going to the
start line.

 

This
is at the start of the race.  The
current leaders in selected classifications get to start at the front.  Yellow is the Overall leader, Green is
Sprint, Polk-a-Dot is Mountain, White is Best Young Rider (under 25)

 

Lance
is on the left by the yellow umbrella #21.

 

I
loved being a part of the Tour de France and would love to come again.  I learned so much, and it makes me
appreciate it all the more. 

 

After
the race started they drove us to the train station so we could head back to
Paris.