Tour de France stage 14

Our real estate never lasts long enough, so we have to take advantage while we can!

The Gendarme rolled out with the caravan.

I'm not an especially big fan of the publicity caravan but I do immensely enjoy hearing emcees Marc and Nicolai giving their dry, over the top commentary as each sponsor drove by.

By now I've gathered autographs from the bulk of the peloton (though I'm not done yet!) which frees me up to take more photos. Below: custom paint job on Kristian Koren's Cannondale bike.

Peter Sagan and Maciej Bodnar.

Cédric Pineau handed out helmets with some help from the LCL lion.

The first several riders to sign on had already given us their autographs, so we cheered for our favorites and I took a few photos. A couple of the riders whose autographs I'm after, like Rein Taaramäe and Alexandre Pichot, have been playing hard to get, while Luca Paolini finally caved in and signed for Fien, Liesa, and I! We gushed our thanks to the bearded Italian who listened with a stone face before returning to the team bus.

Lots of the riders who we are trying to get aren't the most sought after guys in the peloton. Upon hearing their names, Dmitriy Gruzdev and Vasil Kiryenka both pointed to themselves as if to say, “Who, me? You want me?”

I buttoned my lip and turned it over to Fien when riders with Dutch names arrived, netting me autographs from Bram Tankink and Dries Devenyns.

Big cheers for Pierre Rolland, currently sitting 13th in GC.

Most of Garmin rolled up together to the sign on podium and then to the snack bar.

Perhaps it's time someone got Ben King a fresh race number?

Track Olympian Bryan Coquard signed autographs.

Before he signed autographs for fans, Marcus Burghardt snapped a photo of the crowd from the podium (that's me in the blue top half covered by the flapping red flag; Fien and Liesa are unfortunately blocked by the cameraman).

French champion Arnaud Démare was happy to sign autographs but he was less excited by the extremely high pitched screaming that resulted from his presence.

Tejay Van Garderen, currently in 5th, said the podium is within reach but that he doesn't want to get ahead of himself.

Simon Clarke stretched ahead of the 177 kilometer stage with one HC and 2 first category climbs.

Koen De Kort is one of the most accessible and approachable riders in the peloton.

I got my final Trek signature today from Fränk Schleck. He didn't seem too excited this morning and I think it could be argued he just scribbled rather than properly signing!

Koen and Jens, deep in conversation during yesterday's climb up Col de Palaquit, picked up right where they left off.

Niki Terpstra and Nick Roche.

Someone forgot to tell Bernie Eisel and Mick Rogers that it's a mountain top finish today.

Despite the fact that Sebastian Langeveld is using one of my photos as his twitter profile picture, I still haven't managed to get his autograph. I'm running out of opportunities!

High fives from Jean-Christophe Péraud.

The peloton was in good spirits with the mild weather after yesterday's intense heat.

With today's 14 signatures, I now have all possible autographs from 13 teams (excluding a few abandons): 3 Vasil Kiryenka, 19 Giovanni Visconti, 24 Luca Paolini, 39 Matteo Tosatto, 41 Vincenzo Nibali, 43 Andriy Grivko, 44 Dmitriy Gruzdev, 47 Michele Scarponi, 66 Bram Tankink, 73 Michal Golas, 105 Dries Devenyns, 128 Jérémy Roy, 161 Fränk Schleck, and 194 Heinrich Haussler.