Meeting Lance (!!!!) (and the devil's pitchfork)

Bonjour

Well lets just jump this straight to the tour - the highlight of my trip! On Tuesday morning we all set off over the Col de la Croix de fer to St Jean de Maurienne (the finish of stage 9). It was a super hot day, so we managed to find a good spot in the shade under the big screen. The 'caravan' that arrives and throws out junk prior to the tour kept mum busy for a long time. She was stoked with her 5 tour hats! I joined in to get Lex more junk to take home which he happily stashed away in his bag!

It was a long day in the sun and about 30mins before the riders were due to arrive Jase and I decided we had a big decision to make... do we go to the Radioshack bus and attempt to meet Lance (which the guy at the Livestrong tent told me would be totally impossible) and risk missing the race????... or do we watch the end of the race which was proving to be rather exciting with Schleck and Contador dueling????..... hmmmmmm. We opted for an attempt at meeting Lance so walked about 2.5km to the Radioshack bus - it was parked way further away than all the other buses - probably to keep stalkers like us at bay!

Lance was the first rider to appear after the race. He rode straight to the door of the bus and then straight into the shower. I was not alarmed at missing him as the guys at the door had told me and a Canadian woman and her son that this would be what would happen. He is really small - but I guess they all are. The team mechanic admired my NZ flag as he is a kiwi - this made the Canadian girl next to me nervous that I had the upper hand - but as I told her, she had the child with her which always scores browny points! We then waited patiently as Lance came out and spoke with the reporters. He then signalled for us to come over to him as he was getting into the car. I was the only one who actually got to speak to Lance - he was just signing things for the others. I had planned my vocab in the off-chance I would get to speak to him... I suspected it would be very brief if at all, so I had to really think about what I would say to the biggest legend on the planet.... Here is how it unfolded.....

"Hi Lance"... passed my SportsMed pen and paper over to him... JG: "Lance - you've gotta come to New Zealand"..... LA: "That's what they keep telling me"....JG: "That's because it's a great place - you have to come".... LA: smiled.... JG: "All the best for the tour - thanks so much for your time". Highlight of my day and actually my year! Photos above - me blonde hair - Lance hat on.

We then went to see Fabian - unfortunately just missed him but saw him getting in to the bus. Also missed Jens, but saw some of the other Saxo bank riders. Then went and had a chat to Julian Dean. He came out of the bus especially to speak to us as one of his team had told him the NZ flag was outside. He is so nice and even asked us all about our trip - he looked pretty tired as they all did and said it was a really tough mountain stage and that the pace was on from the start.

The trip home was pretty slow, and it was still in the 30's. As we approached a small river, we saw an older man standing stark naked beside his van. Turns out it was the tour devil - a German guy who dresses up as the devil and follows the entire tour every year... Let's just say I have now seen his pitchfork!! Think I prefer him in his tight lycra costume! We gave him a toot and a cheer and continued on our way!

Yesterday we set off again to watch the tour. Christine and Jase biked over, and Mum, Mary, Titch and I drove. We positioned ourselves about 2km from the summit of the first big climb, and wrote a big "KIWI" on the road in yellow chalk. It was another fun but hot day, and good to see that the riders were actually tired and riding slowly after the day before. We ran into Amanda and Michael from Christchurch. Amanda had been told by a woman in a shop that the temperature had reached 40 degrees!!

Today Pauline and Lex head to Lyon and then tomorrow onto Rome to meet up with Scott and Nicki. The rest of us will head to the pool this afternoon and tomorrow Mum and the girls are parapenting off the Alpe d'Huez.

A Bientot
Lance's bud!