Final TT

The final time trial was held in Grenoble, and as it happened our hotel, was located right outside the start ramp of the TT. My room was on the 3rd floor and was directly above the start ramp!

We had access to the Iozard again so that means free drinks and as much icecream and lollies as you eat! We were about 100 mtres from the finish line so it was a little hard to take good pictures of the riders, as by then they were going about 1000 km/hr to the finish line!

George and Me

It was an exciting TT with Cadel taking the yellow jersey from Andy Schleck :( though it wasn't entirely unexpected!

After the TT had finished we caught the train to Paris, it was a 3 hour ride and it was a rather rowdy trip!

Last ride - Alpe d'Heuz!

This was a very exciting day, as we get to climb Alpe d'Heuz, although some of the group had already done it a couple of days ago. First we had to bike down, which was a little hairy as there were so many people on course as well as traffic gojgn up and down, but nobody ever seems to get run over!

This is at Dutch corner, or switchback 7, these guys had been there for a few days and I guess hadn't slept that much but had drunk plenty!

I didn't stop much on the climb up, only once so I have just 1 photo from the ride up, we also had to be up there by a certain time before the race came through.

This was our viewing spot from the 3km to go banner, we got lunch here and watched the race on TV before it got to us!
But before that we got to cross the finish line one last time!

Alberto Contador

Andy and Frank

And to top it all off we got a helicopter ride to the resturant in Grenoble after the race

Galibier and Col du Lautaret

Today the stage finishes up the Galibier, so we biked from the bottom of Alpe d'Heuz to the top of the Col du Lautaret - basically the ride was only about 30km long BUT, it was all up hill! Its was a false flat for most of the ride until the Lautaret which is a fairly hard climb.

Before the Lautaret climb, where was some beautiful scenery - this was a dam that we rode over.

Kimberley and Me

As you can see the race goesall the way up the Galibier, actually to near the top of the peak on the right hand side

There is a road up there! I promise!

The half naked guy is Captain America or Steve as we know him...

And there he goes, Captain America and Ivan Basso, I was amazed how fast these riders can climb, they whizz by going about 20km/hr! or even faster!



Snow!!

We were meant to climb the Galibier and Telegraph today, but its had been snowing up the top of the Galibier and the road was closed. Too bad for the people camped up there waiting for the TdF stage the next day!

Though 3 hardy souls braved the cold and rainy weather to climb the Telegraph...

As you can see by the low cloud, it wasn't that pleasant!

The 3 nutters, opps I mean hardy souls who have no feeling to cold, who wanted to climb Col du Telegraph

The rest of us decided to drive to near Alpe d'Heuz and bike from there, where the weather was much nicer and warmer. Most of the group climbed Alpe d'Heuz, I decided to save my legs for Friday when we were going to do it on race day, so I took some photos as we were driving up in the bus.

Erika - now known as Alberta Contador (hope you don't mind me calling you that ; p)

Stunning views from the top, I even got really puffed just climbing 2 flights of stairs at the hotel - we were about 2000 metres up so the air is a bit thinner and colder, about 10-15 degrees during the day.

More Leopard Trek Stalking (and a little bit of Saxobank)

Another start village today - which I really do love going to because of the access we have to the teams, perfect for a stalker like me...

Fabian

Wonderboy/TT (John, you know what I mean by TT...haha)

Andy - he nearly ran me over, not that I'm complaining!

Alberto - a very hard man to get a decent photo of, he keeps hiding and riding really fast past everyone

We went for a short ride (only about 20kms) got rained and hailed on but thats ok we still had a good time. The town we were in I have no idea what it is called, but feel free to tell me if anyone remebers!

Our next hotel was another beautiful Chateux with equally amazing food.

This is the tidy room before my suitcase bomb went off...



Mont Ventoux

Today we climbed Mont Ventoux - well it was rather like a crawl up the hill. It took me 2.45hrs, which wasn't bad I guess, it was a long, brutal climb and was thinking that I wasn't going to make the 21kms but I did and I was a great view from the top as well as very cold!

First view of the "moonscape" - still about 10km from the summit

The Chalet at 6km to go

The view from the summit

So high up and very cold - about 6 degrees



Later on in the evening we went to Avignon for a bit of a look around and dinner

Yay! WIFI!

Its seems I have to go to Paris to get decent wifi...

Anyway there is a lot to catch up on, starting with the start village where I got the photo with Jakob.

My camera appears to be a yellow jersey maganet - Thomas Vockler again

Frank Schleck

Matthew Goss

This is the beautiful Chateau De Montcaud that we stayed at for 2 days, my room was huge and I really didn't want to leave there!

We didn't ride that day as we had been driving for about 4 hours to get to the hotel, so it was our rest day.



Photo With Jakob!!!

YAY! Finally I got a photo with Jakob Fuglsang, after many, many hours of stalking the Leopard trek bus, I managed to have a photo with him and get him to sign my book.

I was looking awesome cos I had been standing in the rain for 2 hours!

Sorry everybody I can't seem to download anymore photos because the wifi connection is really shite, but I will try at the next hotel :)

I won't post just narratives because they are boring and I know you like to see the photos, so have a little patience and I will catch up on the last few days I have missed when I have a better connection.

Col de Latrape

Another steep climb, though this one was only 4.1km long! which is very short considering what we have been doing.

Erika and Me at the 2nd catergorie climb (1110m)

We then watched the riders go by a couple of hours later, we had a good veiwing point because we could see them coming up the road from quite a long way away.

Leopard trek leading the peleton

Tonight dinner was at Carcassonne and we stay in the Chateau within the city walls - very cool