Brilliant. Headed out kind of late morning, and after making a few phone homes, started col du Lauteret. Damn - just realised I missed the Col photo. C'est la vie. Rode with an Italian couple for the lower half of Lauteret before getting a little excited with all the bunnies up ahead. By the time I passed through the tunnel to Lauteret I was in the big ring and pushing hard. Ben mentioned to me that the ride would end in a race.
Arriving in Lauteret was awesome! Sat down for a quick coffee, and immediately was joined by another Italian couple. They grabbed the table at the same time I did and neither of us was willing to back off. When the waitress came to take the order, they took the tab and bought me an Espresso and a bottle of water. I didn't know enough French to tell them no, and they pretended they didn't know any English. We conversed for awhile in pidgeon Frenglish for awhile and enjoyed the sun and the coffee. They stood up to leave, and said - quite clearly "It was great chatting to you - your French isn't too bad at all". *sigh* hung out to dry again! But great fun.
Went to get on my bike to join the crowd heading to the summit when a French guy wandered over to admire my bike. "Ahhh - bien. Vous etes Australien?" We chatted for a few minutes, and then the waitress came back with four more cafe's. one for him, his two mates, and one for me. Now those who know me can attest that me and two shots of coffee at the best of times aren't good for my travelling companions. It might be worth me adding that French coffee is particularly strong.
So, sitting down, I realised this guy wanted to practice his English, and I was more than happy to practice my French. So for the next hour I drank coffee and conversed. C'est bon!
Perhaps the overload of coffee can explain what happened next. Due to leaving Lauteret too late, the summit was closed. Ferme. Route barre. And with the gendarmes virtually throwing offenders off the mountain (it's a long way down), I wasn't going to argue. Je n'comprends pas can only carry so far. So instead, with the caffeine coursing through my veins, I elected, along with a bunch of other stupid Dutchies and three crazy Frenchies to go bush walking. Hike a bike OVER the top of Galibier, and down the other side. Took nearly an hour of hard going, but the result? Possibly the best seats in the house!
So there we sat, Twenty metres up and twenty metres back with a view over many many hairpins. The caravan comes. This is quite amazing. Music blaring, people going crazy. A parade of free stuff. We were too far away to collect much, and I guess due to the steepness of the terrain they weren't throwing so much as handing it out. No problem, plenty more stages to accumulate schwag.
An hour later, off in the distance the sound of choppers approaches. Thudding in the distance... the Tour has arrived! Suddenly the quiet crowd comes alive. People stand up, cameras come out, the crowd starts pushing closer. This is amazing. From my view in the distance, I figured about maybe, fifteen, twenty minutes? Nup. Ten minutes later they were right in front of me. First Arroyo, then the two Discovery riders, and then Cadel Evans. Going nuts! The crowd really does crowd around, but despite what you see on TV, it's actually quite orderly and controlled. Can't wait to get down there and be part of it next week!
After the tete de la course, the main group followed through to the cheers of everybody. Helicopters overhead, team cars, crowds, a legendary mountain, an Australian doing extremely well in the race for the maillot jaune, and I get to be here to watch it. A truly amazing afternoon.
All too soon they passed, and then the problem of how do we get down to the road without creating a landslide appeared. Seriously. We had the gendarmes telling us to go back up, the crowd below getting showered with shale. Je n'comprend pas - this time with an American accent! But the best bit was the French guys in the photo. The gendarmes that you can see in the top left of the picture were going off their collective nuts telling them off. The French told them (in French of course) to go forth and multiply. And for the first time, I saw the sterotypical French "pfffft" as these guys completely ignored the Gendarmes and did what they wanted. I quite literally had to sit down and hold my sides laughing watching the exchange. In the end, the Gendarmes realised that we were coming down no matter what, and stopped the traffic for us!!! For about five minutes. It was magnificent.
Finally, with a muddy backside, a dusty bike, and a very nasty tear in my finger, I also joined them, and we wound our way through the crowds and began the descent down Galibier. We passed the team cars, busses, and official vehicles on the way down. Gold. From Lauteret onward I joined an Italian, and together we really worked the descent taking it in turns. We popped a number of people of the back which was brilliant. I didn't expect the descent to turn into a race!
Finally, I'm back in the camping. Took a nap in the back of the Kangoo (No mean feat I tell you) and have just settled down to type all this up. First, an express et une petite cafe. Et puis, le grande bier. Fischer. Brewed in Alsace. Awesome. I've just discovered it :-) What a great way to finish the day.
Tomorrow - if I wake up after this, Col d'Izouard. Then off to see Le Tour come into Marseille with Nic.