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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