Col de Marie-Blanque

The weather gods smiled on us yesterday by allowing the ride up the Col du Tourmalet, but today the rain came tumbling down. The plan was to ride in the morning to the Col de Marie-Blanque, the very first climb of the day, arriving just before the publicity caravan and then waiting for the riders, but the cold steady rain in Lourdes discouraged all but the most intrepid riders. I took the bus, hoping that by the time we got out in the country it would be dry enough to ride, but in the end we drove all the way there, walking the final 10 minutes or so to our viewing area after the bus came face-to-face with a wrecker and several gendarmes in Escot (I think) on a street so narrow that you could have reached out the windows and touched the houses on either side.

Our viewing spot was jointly catered by Custom Getaways and by Oakley, so at breakfast we were all given a very nice pair of Oakley sunglasses, which we sported happily all day, rain or no! I don't know where the food and wine was coming from, but it just kept coming and coming and coming. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait very long for the caravan, and then the riders came relatively soon after that. First an escape group of seven riders came by, followed a couple of minutes later by Carlos Sastre riding alone, and then the entire peleton followed by the long line of team cars, official cars, and finally the Voiture Balai (broomwagon) that signifies the end of the procession. We made the short walk back down through the village to our bus, and then the long ride to Saint-Emilion, which took something like 5 hours. Along the way we watched the stage on the televisions in the bus, however the reception was sketchy while we were moving, so we found a rest area and stopped to watch the final 45 minutes of the Tourmalet climb, everyone glued to the TV screens.

It was great fun to see the climb that we had done ourselves just the day before, recognizing landmarks along the way and marveling at how fast they were climbing compared to us. The battle between Schleck and Contador was great to watch, and even though we were all rooting for Andy to make a successful attack, it was good to see him win the stage anyway. The hotel here in Saint-Emilion is really beautiful; we have a balcony overlooking vineyards as far as the eye can see. Supper last night (starting around 9:30) was in the little town and was one of our best meals yet. A huge fuss was made over my birthday, with a cake sporting what were essentially two flares shooting fire and sparks, and we finally got to bed around 1:30 am. Today (Friday) we won't see the TdF at all, but have a ride of 70 km planned, with lunch somewhere out in the country.