Tour de France

Day
5

We
left at 8:45 this morning to head out to the Tour course which ended in
Gap.  We stopped so the guys could
ride the last 65 km of today’s tour ride. 
It had a 7 km climb, Col du Noyer, before an unbelievable downhill
stretch.  The switchbacks were so
tight that we had a hard time getting around.  We had to stop and back up around one of them because we
could not get around it. 

 

The
view in the Alps is absolutely breath taking.  I would turn around and every view looked like it could be
on a post card.  When packing to
come here I thought we would need clothes for cooler weather up here, but it
was 93.  We have been very hot and
sticky everyday.

 

 

Can
you believe these turns?

Here
we are holding our flag.

Here
is a Tractor made from hay.  You
see all kinds of things people make to try to get on TV.  It make the ride so much fun. 

 

We
had to stop to use the bathroom, which can be hard to come by.  We stopped in the largest village, but it
still was very small.  The bathroom
had what Katie called a “Turkish Bathroom”.  Here is a picture of it.  You just squat over it.

 

This
was another kind of bathroom we saw in Gap in the press area.  Men just walk up and go in front of
everyone. 

 

At
the bottom of the mountain we drove in front of Michael, and we had to swerve
out of the way to miss a car, and Michael almost ran into us so he had to ride
off the road.  He got a lot of road
rash and hurt his rotator cuff.  I
felt so bad for him, and Katie our driver felt even worse. 

 

When
we got to the finish we went to the first aid tent to get some better
bandages.  They were so eager to
help since they had a tent full of people ready to help, and Michael was their
first person.

 

We
were given VIP passes to have the best viewing area.  We could be in the double-decker semi shown below or out at the edge of the finish.  They served what ever we wanted to drink and kept walking
around with appetizers.  It is
definitely the way to watch the finish. 
They had several large televisions for us to watch the race

 

Here
it shows how others are stacked to see, and our area had one row of us
watching.  You can also see how
they walked with trays of food. 

 

The
first 2 coming down the home stretch. 
We are anxious to see if we made it on TV cause we were standing right
at the end, and the switched over to our side and went right past us.  We were holding an American Flag which
would blow up from the breeze the riders gave as they rode by.  Sergio Paulinhl from Radio Shack
won! 

 

Here
is Andy Schleck the current leader. 

 

Here
is Fabian Cancellera, one of Michael’s favorite riders.  We just bought a Saxo Bank kit today
(jersey and cycling bibs) as an early birthday present.  It is Michael’s birthday on
Friday. 

 

Here
is a picture of all the police motorcycles lined up after the race.  I guess a police officer lost control
around a turn coming down the mountain and he and the motorcycle went over the
edge.  I have not heard how he is
doing.

 

After
the race we rode 170km to where our new hotel is.  We will watch the start of the tomorrow’s race before we
take the train back to Paris.