July 12, 2004

Welcome

Welcome to my 2004 Tour de France blog. The Tour started July 3rd. I will be in France on the 15th and should be sitting in the Pyrenees by the 16th. I will be following the race through the Pyrenees, the Alps and back to Paris for the finish on July 25th. Hopefully, I will be able to find internet access periodically so that I can post my updates.

Rough approximation of my route.

Posted by pcmg at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2004

Nightmare Trip

Well after sitting on the runway in San Francisco for an hour, flying 5 hours to Philadelphia, sitting on the runway for 3 hours before taking off for a 7 hour flight to Paris, and then because of the delays missing my train to Toulouse by 20 minutes, forcing me to take the 5 hour train ride 3 hours later and then driving up into the Pyrenees for a few hours until midnight, I finally made it to the Pyrenees. But after finding thousands of RVs littering the road to La Mongie, I've decided that later this morning I will move down into Lannemezan to watch this stage.

Posted by pcmg at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2004

Stage 12: Castelsarrasin - La Mongie

Left the Col d'Aspin early this morning opting for a chance to regroup and get up to Plateau de Beille early and have a decent spot. I did get a few shots of the breakaway group and the main group with Lance Armstrong as they passed through Lannemezan. So that worked out and the thunder and lighting storms hit hard the second they went by. The people up on La Mongie and Col d'Aspin must have gotten soaked. And I can't even image what the traffic was like getting back those spots.

Results:
Stage 12:
1 Ivan Basso (Team CSC)
2 Lance Armstrong (US Postal)
3 Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile)

General Classification:
1 Thomas Voeckler (Brioches La Boulangère)
2 Lance Armstrong (US Postal)
3 Sandy Casar (Fdjeux.com)

Posted by pcmg at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

Heavy Rains on Way to Plateau de Beille

Heavy rain, thunder and lightning were the main sights on the way to the next stage. I did stop for a bit in Foix to grab something to eat and to grab a shot of Chateau de Foix. It was still raining pretty hard. By the time I got to Plateau de Beille the hillside was already covered with RV's and I'm camped out in the village near the base.

Posted by pcmg at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2004

Stage 13: Lannemezan - Plateau de Beille

Got up early and hiked up Plateau de Beille to just below the 10 km to go mark. It was hot, the hill is steep and with the weight of the camera equipment, my legs thought that was a good place to stay. As I said I parked and camped on the part of the course just before Plateau de Beille. There was nowhere to park on the hill that I saw, but cars were going up the hill all night. In the morning there was still a line of cars going up the hill. The spot I found near the 10k point was not very crowed but the closer the riders came to that point the more people showed up. The race had already exploded by that point. Armstrong came by with Azevedo and Basso, the rest came in little groups of two or three. I've included shots of the Armstrong group (Armstrong is the eventual winner) and the damage done. Also at the end a shot of a village as I was hiking down the mountain and the rain was starting again. From Plateau de Beille, I drove back to Foix, had dinner and then got my first hotel room of the trip in a town called Mirepoix. Tomorrow off to Carcassonne and Nîmes for stage 14.

Results:
Stage 13:
1 Lance Armstrong (US Postal)
2 Ivan Basso (Team CSC)
3 Georg Totschnig (Gerolsteiner)
notable: 6 Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile Team) 2:42 back

General Classification:

1 Thomas Voeckler (Brioches La Boulangère)
2 Lance Armstrong (US Postal) -0:22
3 Ivan Basso (Team CSC) -1:39
notable: 8 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team -7:01