Waiting to come home......

Well, last night we had a big drive to Paris after watching the Tour - what a great stage. The real beauty of it is that there are still 4 riders, perhaps more who could still win. Certainly there are some who could ride their way on to the podium. I'm sitting right now watching the coverage on Eurosport, which means it's being commentated in english - the first english commentating I've heard since leaving the states. We've managed pretty well to pick up each day's L'Equipe - the newspaper which started the Tour way back in 1903 - and work our way through the headlines and some of the major points. Given Andrew's infinite knowledge and cycling wisdom, we were also able to have complete conversations and debates about the tactics and speculate on the upcoming stages.

After a slight delay in their flight, Andrew and Patrick took off this morning after breakfast - hopefully they got away alright and are presently crossing the pond. Your birthday ski day was a big draw Nick - make sure you thank your Dad, because w

e all definitely thought about the possibility of extending our stay through the finish on the Champs-Elysees. However, the unanimous conclusion was that the consequences would be "profound". 

The point is that following the Tour really gets under your skin. I, for one, fell as if I was just starting to figure it out. Not the race per se, but how to follow the race and maximize the experience. It is a fine juggling act to balance, on one hand - actually seeing the riders for more than 30 seconds and on the other hand - not getting stuck in painful traffic.

2 nights ago, when leaving Jausiers, we got stuck in a long traffic jam - a complete stop. We figured an accident had happened. While I blogged, (earning the 

moniker "Blog Boy") Andrew and Patrick pulled out the cowbell and cheered cyclists as they rode home - not racers, as they got escorted by the gendarmes (the national police), but people from the surrounding area. I would love to know how big a radius the Tour draws people in from. I'm guessing it could be as many as 30-50 kilometers. Finally we got to a spot and stopped for dinner. 

Following dinner we caught up to the "technical caravan". Essentially it was about 7 huge 18-wheeler style trucks, with trailers. Talk about holding on for dear life! Andrew did his best Formula 1 impression - with a Mercedes mini-van - as the drivers of the big rigs were unbelievably aggressive drivers. Obviously they know the roads and their vehicles. I could not believe how fast and furious we were going on what amounte

d to country lanes! It was quite a roller-coaster ride. Those guys do that every night - tear down the finish, drive to the next finish, sleep, and then wake up early and set it all up again. Imagine the logistics involved to do this for 21 stages over 25 days! I think there is a documentary in this somewhere.....hmmm, next year?

Speaking of logistics, here are some numbers I came up with while pondering the experience:

Starting the evening of Saturday, July 12 and concluding Wednesday, July 23rd I...

• Watched sections of 7 stages: 3 finishes, 1 feedzone, 1 roundabout turn, 1 mountain, and 1 start.
• rode my bike on 8 days (@180 miles) (Andrew - maillot jeaune - rode 9)
• rode 2 classic Tour mountain climbs: Hautacam and L'Alpe d'Huez (Andrew did all 4 by doing Col du Tourmalet, and Col du Bonnet, Patrick 3 and Scott 1)
  
• rode the telepherique to the top of the ski area and hiked back to the town for @ 3 hours (about 1600 meters of elevation loss and @ 8-9 miles)
• camped out 6 nights, stayed with friends of friends 2 nights, and only 5 hotel nights (counting extra at the airport)
• Rode in a car ?miles, but it was a ton. I will fill in this after I connect with Andrew in Corvallis. We made a pretty big circle around France.
• Collected lots of Tour trinkets
• Only had 2 food errors, well maybe 3 - the fried minnows, a sausage that tasted pretty much the way a barnyard smells. I'm guessing there were digestive organs involved, and last night a salad with a salty mystery meat that Patrick thought might have been heart. Not too bad for a trip to France!
• Got a picture of the King of the Mountain podium girls - they are tall Jeff!

Today's stage just ended with an interesting little game of cat and mo

use for the stage win. Otherwise nothing of real note happened. I was a typical survival day following the output that the riders spent yesterday climbing 3 monsters.

Make sure to stay tuned for the time trial Saturday. Cadel Evans, agreed upon to be a better time trial rider than those ahead of him, will be trying to "lay one down" as they say in order to claim the Maillot Jeaune. I could be quite a day. Now that my bike is packed, I can't wait to ride it again soon!