Thursday, July 13

Peyragudes ski area as the 2 km is being raised.

 That's our car with the American flag and the banner that say, "Thank you Tommy Voeckler for 15 great Tours."  The banner was photographed often and drew many compliments.  Tommy is a very popular rider in France.

The helicopter precedes the lead riders as they reach the Col de Peyresourde.

The lead group approaches.

The lead group enters the turn into the final climb which is just 2.4 km from the finish.  Chris Froome is in the Yellow Jersey and he is being lead by a teammate.

Started the day with an early breakfast at the hotel.  They opened the dining room at 7:30 in order to accommodate the NBC Sports crew.  Both Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin stopped to chat at our table this morning.  They couldn’t be more friendly, polite, or down to earth.  Phil predicted that Fabio Aru would win, however, he only came in second but did take over the Yellow Jersey from Chris Froome.

The drive to our viewing spot was a short one, only 30 minutes and we were able to park exactly where we wanted, only 2.3 km from the finish.  We then had to wait from 8:30 to 4:45 for the racers to arrive but the tie went by fast as with a perpetual show of humanity passing us. 

The first group, about six riders,  was really flying as they passed us, and then it took another 45 minutes for the rest to make it  by.  Amazingly, we were able to drive out without any delay and we were back in the hotel by 6:00 PM. 

Just enough time to have a cold beer, read the race results, and clean up before dinner.

We had a wonderful dinner but I only remembered to take pictures of our main course which was cod with tomatoes and potatoes.  Eat every bite.  For an appetizer we had gazpacho, and for dessert we had a flan like cake with creme Anglais.  All course were delicious, as was the bottle of rose.