In France

So, it's been a few days since I've written and it's due in part to the fact that I've was traveling Friday and Saturday from San Francisco to Grenoble France. My flight from getting to Grenoble from the Paris airport seemed like it should have been really easy taking the TGV...but then add in some lost baggage, a few 1hour lines and a late train and what should have taken 3 hrs took 8. My buddy Toshi and caught the last 5kms of the stage to finish at Platue de beuix. We sat down to see Lance and Basso fighting out the final of the race.

 

Before Lance zipped up his Jersey, I knew that it was already decided that he was going to win the stage since. I knew that Lance and Basso had decided who would win the day before because neither one of them were playing cat and mouse for the finish..Lance I'm sure told Basso he could have the stage win so that he could take out maximum time from Ullrich and company. However, the next stage would be Lance's.

 

So I'm in France...road the Galibier and La Alp Due'z twice today with the group from Trek Travel..man..these guys/gals are so into it. There are at least 500k people here already..the tour doesn't arrive for 2 more days. It's insane...campers, tents, cars, people all over the place. Everyone is BBQ'ing, dancing and singing in the streets. When the riders come through here on Wednesday it's going to be a raging circus. I'm up on the top of La Alp Due'z for the next two nights. After the race, Trek Travel is flying us down by helicopter to the start of the next stage. If not, it would take two days to get off the mountain with all the traffic.

 

Had a chance to talk to Christian VandeVelde from Liberty Seguros today. The team is a little disappointed in Roberto Heras, who was hired away from USPS, who is not doing as well as they thought he would. But Christian is feeling great and looking to do something in the last week. I also had a chance to talk to George Hincapie for a few minutes today. He's feeling good also and the moral on the team is really good given that Lance has crushed all his rivals over the two big mountain days in the Pyrenees. Tomorrow is a very hard stage with over 5000 meters of climbing...but Wednesday is the TT up the la Alp Due'z. My money is Lance to win by 45 seconds...but I also think that Jan will do a good TT.

 

Ok...so once I can find a better connection, I'll send some photos too.