Tour de France stage 12

As cold as the Tour had been leading up to the rest day, it's suddenly turned hot. Very, very hot. Fien, Liesa, and I had to defend our small territory against people desperate for freebies who didn't mind at all rubbing their sweaty bodies all over us. It was was that kind of morning.

But we were there for a reason! The Tour must not be missed and autographs must be collected.

A trio of Movistar riders tried to beat the rush by signing in 20 minutes early. They weren't allowed to, of course, but this did make it extremely easy to get Beñat Intxausti's autograph.

In addition to picking up the usual gels, bars, and powders for the riders, team staff also hauled buckets of ice back to the buses.

Luis Angel Mate.

Cyril Gautier.

Yukiya Arashiro.

Peter Sagan.

Kevin Reza.

Marcus Burghardt.

Gatis Smukulis.

Zak Dempster.

Everyone wants a piece of the yellow jersey, on and off the bike.

The three amigos, Jurgen Roelandts, Andre Greipel, and Adam Hansen, sat in the shade looking like a bunch of bored school boys. During the Tour Down Under, I bumped into them a couple of times across town. I'd loved to know what they were talking about because at one point when I looked over, they were taking turns shaking Greipel's shoe and listening to it like a wrapped Christmas present. They also listened to Roelandts's shoe but found it less intriguing.

This childlike behavior was all the more funny to me having watched this 2 minute “news” video about the Tour from The Onion yesterday.

Always making time for fans, Jens Voigt signed plenty of autographs.

He even tried to smile for a photo but I missed it. Sorry, Jensie!

I'm a little sad that there's only one Spanish speaking rider whose autograph I don't yet have (David Lopez Garcia of Sky). The Spaniards have all been so enthusiastic and chatty with me! It's been great to practice my Spanish while in France–it makes me feel a little better about my French!

There are a few riders I'm not convinced will sign no matter what I do (or don't do). I haven't seen Luca Paolini sign one autograph the entire Tour, but I have gotten a slight wave and a gentle nod from him, so I'm clearly making progress! Also, Sebastian Langeveld is the lone holdout from Garmin. For some reason, the guys on IAM are really hard to get. With all of the autographs I've gotten so far, just 3 of them are from IAM, whereas there are 10 different teams where I'm missing just one rider!

Since we haven't been at the last few stages together, Fien, Liesa and I are all seeking different autographs. A rider I got the other day, they've missed so far and vice versa which meant that every time a rider approached, one of us frantically announced who it was and everyone consulted their lists to see if he'd already signed or not. To further complicate things, the press noticed what a prime spot we were in and as they snapped their photos, they would block one or two of us from the rider who had come over because we had shouted for him. We had some good luck passing our markers and items back and forth but we didn't always succeed. Most notably, I missed out on Bram Tankink when some photographers blocked me off. But I've still got a few more stages to try!

As much as I love getting autographs from all the riders, I think I prefer getting familiar waves from the riders who've come to know me and look for my face in the crowd. In particular, Adam Hansen, Gatis Smukulis, Maciej Bodnar, Alex Howes (ok, most of Garmin) and a few others wave at me more often than not. The 2 riders I most look forward to seeing at sign on elicit polar opposite reactions from me: for Svein Tuft, I just say a calm, “hey, Svein,” as if he were a colleague I was passing in the hall since he's a pretty mellow guy, while when I see Ramunas Navardauskas, I yell “Navardaaaaaaaaaaauskaaaaaaaaaas!!!” at the top of my lungs. I will stop only when it stops making him laugh! I had a little gift for my favorite Lithuanian rider today–a card I'd made and bottle of honey–and Navardauskas was so appreciative which absolutely made my day.

It took a lot of teamwork to get 22 autographs from: 7 Richie Porte, 13 John Gadret, 15 Beñat Intxausti, 29 Youri Trofimov, 32 Daniele Bennati, 34 Rafal Majka, 45 Maxim Iglinsky, 61 Bauke Mollema, 67 Laurens Ten Dam, 77 Mark Renshaw, 83 Mickael Chérel, 101 Marcel Kittel, 111 Rui Costa, 124 Arnold Jeannesson, 129 Arthur Vichot, 165 Gregory Rast, Australian champion 181 Simon Gerrans, Swiss champion 193 Martin Elmiger, 198 Sebastian Reichenbach, 207 Jose Mendes, 208 Andreas Schillinger, and 213 Anthony Delaplace.