Col de Joux-Plane

the tour is always more fun to see in the mountains. just really fun. i think part of it is being able to see what happens to yourself when riding up the mountain. so after a 6 hour train ride, an hour. 5 of biking up a mountain i did not know exsited and a good nights sleep in the cool mountain air. Lars and i took off to get to the base of the Col de Joux-Plane. as expected it was pretty busy, after weaving around the village at the base trying to find the right road to go up (was basically an alley at the start). eventually the polka-dot sign was found and off i sped. up i went past the devil, past all the walkers, past all the other bikers, out of the big trees to the top i went, watering the hot ground the whole way up. it was great. i felt good pretty much the whole time. even the steep parts just flew by. i hit the summit at 48:50 with quite a lot of energy left. but my goal for this HC category climb (11.7 km @ 8.7%) was under an hour. i did that without problem. and unlike last time i climbed a french alp hard i did not get passed, it was great. at times people would try to hold my wheel but would never last to long. one guy that did saw me at the top a bit later and said well done. hahaha
after that it was time to wait for the big boys to come. we set up camp about 50 meteres after 1km to go, in a space that stayed nice and deviod of other people, then waited and waited while the road began to melt. it was crazy. some of the rubbery heel on my shoes actually melted. when people rode by on a bike (expecially mtn) it sounded like they were riding on glue.
eventually floyd came, and went. haha. it was cool to see how far he was ahead. he just smoked everyone else. this time i decided to watch the tour without the aid of an LCD screen, so i did not get many pictures. good for me, bad for you! ha. it was great to just not really worry about pictures, just cheer. there were some basque guys by us, they pushed a bunch of guys then got stopped by the police. they even did a relay for one guy. haha. life without barriers is sweet.
quite a bit after floyd the peleton went by and that means i can get on the bike again. after a bunch of waiting at the top it was finally time to cruise down to morzine. people were sure dumb on the way down, i almost hit multiple people that decided to step out in front of me because they were to lazy to look. but i made it.
then it was dinner, then watched the fireworks that were shot off from the mtn.
this morning the start line was quite near to the hotel. we (lars and I) walked around a bit to see what there was to see, then he wanted to stand near the line. i did not want to stand in the sun, so i walked around a bunch more looking for team buses and that kinda thing. i wanted to get a picture of the mechanics working on all the bikes. but never got a chance. i however did meet the chalk board guy. so that was pretty cool. he gets more t.v. time then anyone! ha
eventually i made my way back to the start line. found a nice open spot. waited about 45 min, and the riders started lining up. i did not get to talk to any though. oh well.
now pictures.

i conquered it, not the other way around.

a heavy haul

back in the dots

a bit of help, also notice the road looks wet. thats melting tar.

peleton

i ate lots of baguettes

team beat at Le Tour

mr. chalk board

bike and leg of mccewen

happy hincapie

maillot jaune

everyones ready to go