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



Chateaus without decent Wifi! Grrrrr....

Yes, it is a problem, these chateaus that don't have very good wifif, so that is why I am sitting in the reception of this one using my laptop.

so it will be short, but as soon as I have decent wifi I can post some pictures and update my blog, which I know I haven't done for a couple of days!

The pictures are taking too long to download, so I will try and post later on tonight at the next hotel.

2 Big Climbs in 2 Days (and Liquigas staying at our hotel)

Yesterday we got to climb the Luz Ardiden, which is a 13.3km climb at an average of 7.4% - so pretty steep

We also got to cross the finish line again, so we had to group at the 1km to go banner and ride together across the line - very cool on a HC climb

Looking down the road from the 2km to go banner

Up to the finish line

The finish line

As you can see we had great seats just 10 metres from the finsh, so we saw the awesome win by some Spanish guy (I can't remember his name lol!)

Frankie!

We also got a helicopter ride of the mountain and back to Tarbes, though we had to wait about an hour after the first group had gone, and in the mean time the team cars were parked just below us and the Spanish supporters had mobbed the Euskaltel Euskadi car, very funny to watch because they are just like football suppoters with their songs

Me and Thomas waiting for the helicopter (we were bored and freezing!)

Thomas Vockler getting a ride off the mountain (before us I might add!)

The Col d'Aubisque

Today we climbed the Col d'Aubisque - 16.4km at an average of 7.1% it was a killer!!! I did however, make it up there!!! YAY only took 2.5hrs lol!

The view from "I still have 1km to go"

About 1600m up

The stage winner Thor

And we have team Liquigas staying at our hotel!! though they are rather hard to find as they don't come out very often, but I did see Ivan Basso :)

Crossing the Finish Line and Stalking Leopard Trek...

Yesterday we got to cross the finish line on our bikes again - and me being me had to be first across the line...again!!!! two from two!

This a video of Thomas (aka Le Velo Boy) doing his version of the Le Velo dance just after we crossed the line, you can see the actual Le Velo clip on my facebook, its really funny!

Then we got to stand on the podium (while the music is playing) and pose for yet more photos

John, Me and Thomas (they were my podium girls...hehe)

After that we got to watch the finish of the race and swelter in the hot weather.

Stalking Leopard Trek Boys...

Since today we had a village start, it was an ideal time to stalk the Leopard trek Team...

Unfortunately it was pouring with rain, but that didn't stop me, and as soon as the buses had pulled up, I waited outside the bus until they came out (about an hour later) fortunately the bus has a sun/rain shade so I was able to stand under that and dry out a bit.

I got some really good photos of the guys as they are really close to you and although they just want to get on their bikes, they did stay and sign autographs.

Jens Voigt

Frank Schleck

Fabian

I really wanted a picture of Jakob Fugslang, but he went the other way, and Jens came my way instead so I got his autograph instead (I will get Jakob sometime!)

Then he posed for a photo - Bless :)



Its very crowded at the start, and you have to watch that you don't get run over by a rider or car for that matter and I did get a few photos of other riders going by but I actually have no idea who they are! But it was a great day despite the rain.

Thomas Vockler (I find it easy to always get photos of him!)

Tomorrow we have our first high mountain climb - Luz ardiden