I've seen mountain stages in the sun and I've seen mountain stages in the rain. I prefer the sun. Today it was rain. When I woke up at midnight to the thudding of rain on the roof, all I could think about were the poor crew members probably slopping around a muddy mountain in the dark setting up the media vehicles at the finish line for the stage 10 arrival at La Planche des Belles Filles.
Shuttle buses dropped off thousand of people at the base of the climb. I decided to hike up all 5.9 kilometers of the climb with some Aussies to scope out good vantage points. The climb has an average gradient of 8.5% which is cruelly deceptive. There are sections that are 11% and 13% and in the final few hundred meters there's even a ramp at 20%!
Setting up the fences and advertisements along the road.
Fans established their support bases for their favorite riders.
Preparing to inflate the flame rouge to mark the final kilometer.
Did I mention the weather wasn't good?
In case you're wondering what a 20% climb looks like, this is it! Between 300 and about 50 meters, the road rises like a phoenix.
Surprisingly, the final 25 meters of the course were dead flat.
As I expected, the finish line was a ideal for mud wrestling, less so for hosting the world's most watched cycling event. Workers got creative in an effort to stay somewhat clean and partially dry.
While the 20% ramp certainly would have been a good spot for watching, the fact that the road was so straight suggested to me that the crowds would lean in and clog the road, blocking both my view and the riders' path so I retreated back down the mountain to a switchback that had caught my eye.
The 1 kilometer banner inflated.
The police were keeping people off the inside corner which meant I had an unobstructed view of the turn. Perfect!
Standing on a mountain in the rain isn't necessarily my favorite thing to do but in addition to chatting with the lovely English couple sharing my spot, there was some phenomenal people watching to be had.
This gentleman was more interested in his book than in the publicity caravan. Can't blame him.
Up the road, firefighters went to investigate yellow smoke some spectators had set off. Fortunately, they didn't release any during the race.
With about 40 kilometers to go, a few people invaded our spectacular view. Still, there was plenty of room for us all on the corner and more importantly, the sky apparently called a truce and agreed not to rain for the rest of the day.
Just up the course, fans spilled onto the straight road.
A break away of Joaquim Rodriguez, Amaël Moinard, Giovanni Visconti, and Michal Kwiatkowski were descending the previous climb but the foursome had fallen apart by the time they hit 3 kilometers to go on La Plache. Rodriguez had attacked and gone clear.
Kwiatkowski was close to a minute behind.
Visconti looked over his shoulder to see how much time he had on the chase group.
Michele Scarponi, Vincenzo Nibali, and Alejandro Valverde hunted Visconti.
World champion Rui Costa grimaced up the mountain while his American teammate Chris Horner seemed to be smiling away.
Geraint Thomas and Fränk Schleck.
Cyril Gautier.
Tony Gallopin in yellow.
Over 4 minutes after Rodriguez rounded the corner, Tom-Jelte Slagter paced team leader Andrew Talansky up the climb.
Huge cheers for French favorite Sylvain Chavanel.
Ben King.
Nice to see such passionate Belgian support for the young American.
Does anyone ever write about these 2 and not mention the phrase “time trial?” Tony Martin in polka dots and Fabian Cancellara. Cancellara seemed to be ahead of the German…
Michael Schär and Greg Van Avermaet.
Winner of stage 8, Blel Kadri.
A Belgian on an Aussie team and an Aussie on a Belgian team: Jens Keukeleire and Adam Hansen.
Simon Gerrans and Michael Albasini.
Alex Howes.
If I was to have any chance of catching my train after the stage, I had to hustle down the climb towards the departing shuttles even though not all of the riders had come in yet. I met a group with a couple of dozen riders on my way down being led by Koen De Kort. When I cheered Koen's name, his face broke into a huge smile.
Just 2 more kilometers until the bottom.
John Degenkolb, clearly struggling, tried to get a little help from Belkin but had no success.
A little further down the road, his compatriot, Andre Greipel, didn't seem to be having much fun either.
Marcus Burghardt and Daniel Oss.
The grupetto rolled in with 2 of my favorites side by side: Ramunas Navardauskas and Svein Tuft.
Meanwhile, the riders who had finished the stage and grabbed some wam clothes began to descend the mountain to their waiting team buses. Below: Jurgen Van den Broeck.
After finishing a 161 kilometer stage with 7 categorized climbs, I love that Jan Bakelants heard me cheer for him and said an excited, “Hey!” as he zoomed by.
The last rider to finish the stage, Tiago Machado, looked like he'd suffered a crash at some point during the day.
With pros and fans riding down the mountain alongside thousands of other spectators, there was an inevitable and massive bottle neck just ahead of the shuttle buses.
Do you see Johan Vansummeren in the photo below? No? You'll spot his blue helmet with orange glasses above most of the heads around him. He got stuck in the traffic but when I spotted him, I helped to clear a path out for the giant Belgian.
Finally aboard a bus myself, I watched as Marcel Sieberg (pictured below) and the rest of the peloton rode off to the team buses.
Poor Vladimir Isaichev, he rode so slowly looking for his bus in every parking lot. He started to ride past the Katusha bus until a soigneur grabbed him and pulled him in. It had been along stage.
