This morning, hours before the race would come through, we rode up Alpe D'Huez and then looped back into the valley below via an access road that coursed through a small village or two...beautiful postcard-type scenes from France.  And the ride up Alpe D'Huez itself was much easier than I expected.  Normally, that would be the highpoint of a a great day!  But it wasn't.   Not even close.

I could have stayed at the restaurant our group had taken over in the town at the base of Alpe D'Huez, watched as the race flew past, and then glued my eyes to the live TV coverage, screaming and yelling (at a TV) as Lance made his decisive move to both win the stage and serve notice that he's there to win the 'Tour.

Instead, I headed (on foot) up the hill...stopping just short of the 2nd hairpin from the bottom...which just happened to be the spot that Lance chose to make his break.  I was there, on the hill with 300,000 others, waiting expectedly for the riders to come through.  The lead guy came by, with about a two minute lead on the first group behind.  You don't know who's coming next until they're there.  The anticipation in the crowd is electric...people are on needles & pins, everyone hoping it's their own favorite rider.  And everyone's equally expectant of Lance Armstrong who, so far, hasn't done enough to assure the masses that he's capable of pulling off a win at all, much less a convincing win worthy of a champion.

There's no way you can explain the feeling everyone had when it was Lance riding away from his pursuers.  Even those who were there for other riders (the French do tend to support their own, and why shouldn't they?) experienced something akin to the fulfillment of a prophecy...and the excitement level suddenly ratcheted entirely off the scale!  Little kids were screaming "It's Lance!", adults were craning their heads for a better look, and, somehow, there was this feeling that the world was right, things were working the way people expected, and they had something they could take home with them.

Bobby Julich, one of the truly nice guys out there.  At this point, he appears to be fairly relaxed.  I wouldn't suggest that he's enjoying himself, but he's apparently come to terms with blowing off the back of the leaders on a prior climb, and rides in a relaxed (but steady) tempo.  Interesting to note that he won't wear his helmet up the hill, but he carries it on his bike anyway.  Probably waiting to hand it off to his team car.

I should have had someone take a photo of me with him...could have titled it "Chain Reaction makes pact with the Devil."

07/18/01 Lance wins the Time Trial for his second victory in a row!
But if you're looking for photos of Lance on his bike, you'll have to go down the page a bit.  Our group had plans that involved getting elsewhere to a TV once the stage began, but a broken-down bus (which, over the past few days, has become something we've kinda bonded to) changed things just a bit!  Nevertheless, I did get...

We figure Ullrich lost because he was so bummed out that his driver wouldn't turn around and make another pass, creating a fatal break in concentration.  Throw a beautiful woman in front of a car full of men and you can accomplish anything!  

07/16/01- Earlier news from France!

Step #1- You bring in Mike Mayer, TREK's liaison to the US Postal team (the guy Lance goes to with special requests!).  Mike did a good job explaining that this remains very early in the race, that O'Grady isn't a climber, and that the defining stages of the Tour de France begin with Tuesday's ride up Alpe D'Huez and the following day's uphill time trial.

Mike, who frequently travels in the team car, also had some harrowing tales regarding Christian Vande Velde's crash on Saturday, which took him out of the race.  Seems he continued for another 3km with a broken arm, concussion and contusion on his neck before finally giving up. 

More tomorrow!  --Mike--

Sunday, 4:22pm in Geneva (7:22am back home).  Switzerland isn't quite what I'd pictured in my mind!  There's certainly no shortage of concrete...the city, at least the area near the airport, has a very industrial look to it.  Every once in awhile you get a glimpse of something beautiful as the clouds lift just enough here and there...beautiful, in this case, meaning mountains.  Clearly, there's something about me and mountains.  Don't think I could live in Kansas.

The photo on the left is from my room at the Hotel Tiffany.  Nothing special, just trying to prove that I can, in fact, send photos and update the website (and a day or two ahead of schedule!).

For you technogeeks who want to know what I'm packing on this trip, here's the rundown-

Palm Prism handheld.  Not totally sure why I brought it, since it's no good for typing anything lengthy, but is useful for short notes.

Toshiba 3005-S303 laptop.  Aside from the hyper-sensitive "a" key, this is, to me, a dream machine.  850mhz, 128 megs ram, 20 gig hard drive, 14" screen, built-in ethernet, modem & smartmedia card reader.  At $1899, this is a cost-effective screamer, the computer equivalent of a TREK 5200!

Olympus 3000Z digital camera.  This is one of the two cameras I brought to France last year; this year, I've decided to dispense with the lower-res 450z, partly because I've begun to figure out how to use the more-awkward 3000Z while riding, and partly because the laptop will allow me to store a near-infinite number of hi-res photos without running out of space on the camera's smart media card.  --Mike--

Better give me a bit of time to get everything organized, as I took over 500 photos this time, so there's a little bit to go through!

07/21/01- THE DIRTY LAUNDRY.  Yeah, you're thinking, great, I want to get the real dirt on things!  Sorry to disappoint, but this is about real laundry.  For my trip to France, I brought enough clothes for four days, figuring I'd do laundry there (and save suitcase space!).  So, on Wednesday evening, I drag myself to the front desk of the hotel and ask if there are any Laundromats nearby.  "Oh sir, no problem at all!  In your room, there are bags that you can put your laundry into and they're picked up each evening and delivered back to you the next morning."  OK, normally I'd ask some really complicated questions, like how much does it cost, but day after day with very little sleep catches up to you and you're not quite on your toes!

So, I dump all the stuff into the plastic bag (two sets of cycling shorts & jerseys, four pants, four shirts, plus assorted underwear) and leave it outside the door.  It doesn't quite magically disappear, as there's a knock on the door saying that I need to write down my name and room number on this sheet that describes the service, etc etc etc.  It also turns out to have given pricing, but how much could it be?

Well, at dinner, someone else is mentioning that they had their laundry done by the hotel last year, and that it would have been cheaper to burn it and buy new clothes.  Uh-oh.  Not only that, but it gets delivered back fairly late in the day, so I wouldn't have my cycling clothes available for riding in the Mont Blanc area the next morning.  That part turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as what could have been cooler than heading into the local shop in town and buying one of their local "Chamonix Cycling Club" shorts & jersey?  Probably the best souvenirs I'm bringing home!

But back to the laundry.  One small plastic bag of laundry.  644 French Francs, or about $90.  (Of course. it did come back beautifully folded in a charming wicker basket, and presentation is, after all, important!)  So, from here on out, we'll be pricing everything in FLUs (French Laundry Units).  That would make a tune-up something like .6 FLUs, a veritable bargain!

07/20/01 OK, that wasn't my last entry below!  One last shot at updating the website before getting up for a very early flight back home.  Watched the 'Tour coverage today (on TV, not in person, since it's now quite a ways from where we've been staying) and, well, what can you say about Lance?  He just may be unstoppable.  If you missed it, Ullrich had been riding aggressively, trying to make Lance work and maybe shake him off his tail.  The two had actually gone ahead of the main group, with only one other rider in front of them.  On the final climb, Ullrich takes a glance back at Lance, and I don't know if that was the catalyst or just coincidence, but that's when Lance decides to fly past Ullrich and gain another 20 seconds on him.

07/20/01 Probably my last entry before heading home.    Won't get to see today's (Friday) stage, or tomorrow's, as I fly back home...but really looking forward to Sunday's OLN coverage of the infamous Tourmalet stage, which should determine the final outcome.   The French newspapers are full of stories and pictures about Lance,  and when it's noted that you're from the USA,  strangers on the street invariably congratulate you,  and the US, as if you're somehow more special because Lance might win the Tour.

Almost forgot- had one of those infamous experiences in a restaurant last night.  You know, the one where you're (actually someone else at our table, not me, but could have been!) asking the waitress if she speaks English, and she replies yes, but then proceeds to lecture us about how respectful it might be if people coming to her country might learn at least a little French first.  But it didn't stop there.  As she'd cruise through between our tables, bumping into them from time to time, her "Pardon" (pronounced par-doan) was always after the bump, never before.  I considered that maybe that's just the way it's done in France...but noted on the street otherwise.

Don't get me wrong...there's a lot of sense to what she says...that we ought to take more effort trying to learn how to communicate.  Perhaps there's more to gain from carrying around a cheat-sheet of phrases than to lose by looking like a dork?  I suspect that's the case.  In any event, probably not a bad thing to learn how to say in French "How do you say (substitute english word here)?"  I suspect that will go a long way towards breaking the ice!