For the final mountain stage, the organizers have made it a serious one with 2 cat 3 climbs followed by an ascent of Col du Tourmalet and then finally a summit finish at Hautacam.
At over 13 kilometers, I had a long hike ahead of me to find Liesa and Fien at the top where they'd spent the night before. In no time, I'd gained noticeable elevation.
Filling up water bottles in advance of a full day to be spent on Hautacam.
At least I didn't have to worry about getting lost. With just one main road for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars to share, I just had to keep moving in the same direction as everyone else. Watching all the cars go by, I joked to myself that I probably knew a few people driving up. That turned out to be right on the money because a couple of minutes later, some of the guys I knew at France TV pulled over to give me a lift. Wahoo!
The silhouettes of the VIP areas were visible from 10 kilometers away.
The road was closed to vehicles without press or technical passes and it still took about an hour to drive up. I hate to think how long the walk would have taken me!
At stage 17, my Belgian friends had received a press pass for their car which let them use the press parking lot at the summit.
Those who cycled up could take a photo celebrating their achievement with this sign…
…to be followed immediately by a nap on the grass.
I was on my way to buy a crepe (just one of the advantages of watching cycling in France) when I bumped into Doug and Paul. They had noticed my “shut up legs” bracelet and we quickly realized that not only had we all ridden with Jens Voigt in England last April, we had actually been in the same start group. This meant a lot to me because as slow as I usually am while riding, being on a rented bike in my running shoes and under prepared for the cold weather didn't make me any faster. The group had been amazingly patient with me which I truly appreciated!
On the drive up, we passed I don't know how many cars and camper vans. Further up on the ridge, a line of parked RVs stretched asking as I could see.
This was the tightest space yet I'd seen available to the finish line crew and press trucks.
We scouted out the last several hundred meters and were really excited to watch the race from about 310 meters shy of the finish line. Here we had everything: we could see the big screen, we had a clear view in both directions for 200 meters of the road, and we would even be able to see the race approach from the bend below us.
The caravan inevitably arrived and dumped its goodies on the road for this poor cop to clean up.
The only thing I do try to get from the caravan are madelines, little buttery cakes, and today we hit the jackpot. Even better was that, unlike the people next to us who repeatedly(!) fell down the hill in order to chase after the freebies, my butter cakes pretty much came right to us. Success!
These 2 guys from Brittany made for good people watching in the downtime between the caravan and the race.
When the race approached, it was a familiar sight: Vincenzo Nibali on his way to yet another stage victory and putting even more time into his already distant rivals.
Baring disaster, Nibali will keep his yellow jersey all the way to Paris.
With about 450 meters to go, Thibaut Pinot led Tejay Van Garderen, Jean Christophe Péraud, and Rafal Majka.
Majka attacked directly in front of us and with a few decisive pedal strokes, the polka dot jersey was on his way to finishing second on the stage.
Riders began to appear in small clusters, separated by anything from a handful of seconds to a couple of minutes.
Chris Horner.
Pete Stetina.
Nick Roche.
Sylvain Chavanel.
Jurgen Van Den Broeck.
I've mentioned before that riders typically ride down the final mountain to reach the team buses. This is practical as there simply isn't space for 21 additional buses to park, let alone maneuver, but cycling down is also the fastest way for the peloton to get off the mountain and on the road to their hotels. Below: Cyril Gautier talks with a teammate.
Christophe Riblon on the ascent.
Stetina and Van Garderen on the descent.
Gatis Smukulis led a group which included Garmin's Tom-Jelte Slagter, Ben King, and Johan Vansummeren, along with Richie Porte.
Lars Boom.
Joaquim Rodriguez.
The bulk of the peloton had come in by this point, so the remaining riders, all of whom were comfortably ahead of the time limit, rode in as leisurely as possible, often chatting with teammates or friends on other teams.
An AG2R rider slowed down to high-5 his teammate who was still on his way to the finish.
Jakob Fuglsang.
The podium was a few corners away, yet I could hear the Tour's anthem, signaling that the jerseys were being presented. In the mountains, it often happens that the ceremony is held up when the organizers must wait for the green jersey leader to arrive and today was no exception.
Riders ascend and descend on the same road.
Tinkoff and Trek's Gregory Rast.
Around half an hour after Nibali took his fourth stage won, the grupetto rolled in. In this shot, I can spot 3 national jerseys and all 6 of the remaining Orica riders.
The grupetto.
Marcus Burghardt and Marcel Sieberg.
One of the main task for Giant was to make sure Marcel Kittel survived the mountains within the time cut. They can breath a little easier now that Hautacam is over and done with for this year and there are no more mountains between here and Paris.
Among the last riders (if not the last) to finish was a pair of Poles: Maciej Bodnar and Michal Kwiatkowski. I really like Kwiatkowski but my Polish loyalties lie first with Bodnar and Fien and Liesa are now fans of his, so the 3 of us yelled so loudly that Bodnar grinned from ear to ear while Kwiatkowski first gave us a funny look…
…and then he gave his friend and compatriot a funny look.
Moments later, the banner came down and the crew got to work on dismantling the signs and advertisements.
FDJ, Garmin, and Belkin on the foggy descent.
Svein Tuft, Luke Durbridge, and Michael Albasini.
With no one left to support, we had to pass all of the TV trucks to reach the car. A good sized crowd had gathered unusually close to the cliff's edge where I spied Richard Virenque interviewing Alexander Vinokurov. I didn't see that one coming.
I meant it when I said the fog had rolled in.
Getting out of the press parking lot was like, well, sitting in parking lot. Phil Liggit was in the passenger of the NBCSN van and reclined his seat to rest. I also saw Sean Kelly, Greg Lemond, and Christian Vande Velde stuck in traffic, making it by far the best traffic I've ever participated in.
