While the peloton would be riding to the top of Pla d'Adet, I was happy to cheat and take a gondola up, saving myself a 10+ kilometer hike.
Beautiful morning views from the summit.
Lots of camper vans, tents, and gondola passengers, all searching for a good viewing spot.
The morning air was wonderfully cool despite the glaring sun.
Every space presents a unique challenge. At the summit of Pla d'Adet, the buildings seemed to encroach on the finish area, creating extra difficulties for the hard working crews.
This sneaky woman was understandably excited to stand on the top step of the podium!
I began my trek downhill to seek out an ideal viewing spot.
Trying to set up and inflate the 1k banner was not an easy task with traffic running up and down the mountain.
The 124 kilometer stage briefly meandered into Spain today, but anytime Spain is this close to the Tour, the Basques turn up in droves.
The final 2 kilometers of the route were barricaded to prevent idiots from running alongside the cyclists.
Downhill..
These riders had already completed the steepest sections of the climb by the time they hit 2k to go.
There was a village at the 3k banner so this was a much busier area.
There were even a few reasonably flat sections.
Putting up the 4k banner.
Riding in the mountains can be dangerous. One must always be vigilant for rogue sheep.
I hit the halfway point, 5k, and decided I'd already passed some good options, so I snapped a photo of the village at the summit and made my way back up.
The 1k banner, now ready to go.
Having walked all the way back to the summit, I turned around one more time to walk downhill. This time I stopped around 1.5k shy of the finish line. Without switchbacks on Pla d'Adet, I was really happy with this stretch of winding road. I set up my flags on the hillside and practiced my French discussing the race with the gentleman next to me until I was joined by an American friend I met a couple of nights ago.
We had updates from someone's car radio and heard that Rafa Majka, the Polish rider from Tinkoff Saxo who won a stage just a few days ago, had been part of a 20+ rider break that had splintered and had gone clear.
About half a minute behind, Giovanni Visconti.
Alessandro De Marchi looked over his shoulder to find an AG2R rider and the yellow jersey.
Fränk Schleck and Bauke Mollema.
He was probably checking to see if anyone was on his heels but I like to think Nock Roche was smiling for the Cochonou guys.
Tejay Van Garderen needed to make up for the time he lost in stage 16 so he had a teammate with him (out of the photo) and stuck with Thibaut Pinot.
Jurgen Van Den Broeck.
Joaquim Rodriguez.
Richie Porte and Sylvain Chavanel. By now, a handful of riders had passed in pairs and singles.
The first of the big groups to arrive.
Alex Howes solo.
Geraint Thomas and Nicolas Edet.
There's hardly enough room for the media trucks and finish line necessities, so team buses generally park at the bottom of the mountain climbs. Several Movistar riders were among the first to fly back down the mountain, even as riders continued to climb.
Arnaud Gérard, Blel Kadri, and Matteo Montaguti were deep in a conversation, laughing and smiling as if they were out for a Wednesday afternoon spin.
Jakob Fuglsang persevered despite crashes and stomach issues this Tour.
Jan Bakelants descending.
Tony Martin, Martin Elmiger, Bernie Eisel, and Koen De Kort led the next bunch which included Peter Sagan and Jens Voigt.
Ramunas Navardauskas and Davide Cimolai tried to make the best of a long climb by socializing their way to the summit.
Cheng Ji.
The grupetto led by Tom-Jelte Slagter, Adam Hansen, and Svein Tuft.
Today was never ging to be an easy day for Marcel Kittel who was well off the back and being paced by teammate Tom Veelers.
Ben King on the descent.
Hiking back up towards the gondola, I spotted Sebastian Langeveld and a teammate finding their own path down.
It just goes to show my brain is so focused on cycling that I spotted the 2 Garmkn riders before my brain could process why the road was so colorful. The caravan, in its entirety, had parked on a back road. It's quite a sight to see it all jammed into one tight road!
The queue for the gondola wasn't nearly as bad as it looked…
…and we only got stuck once on the way down!
