Stage 17: Pau > Col du Tourmalet…

We awoke to another rainy day in Lourdes on Thursday (07/22). The sky was gray and the clouds covered the mountains. We left Lourdes around 10:30am and headed west to get to the base of the col de Soulor in Asson, which is the 2nd climb of the day. We arrived shortly after 11:00am to the small town where only a handful of fans were milling about at that point. That certainly changed over the next couple of hours!

We were near the feed zone for the riders, so K and I walked up the route a bit to check it out, but didn’t see much going on yet at that point. So, we headed back near the entrance to town where the riders would be making a sharp right-hand turn to begin their ascent. The roads were quite wet from the ongoing rain, so we anticipated that the riders would be approaching the turn cautiously and slowing down enough to provide a good viewing spot.

Beginning of the feed zone

The publicity caravan arrived around 1:00pm, and boy, was that a circus! It stretched on for almost an hour with fanciful sponsor cars, race official cars, and team cars. We were able to snatch a few goodies from the sponsors, although I learned my lesson for tomorrow is not to position myself near children who are faster and closer to the ground than I am! We braved the rain until it finally started to clear out around 2:00pm, just in time for the riders to come through about 45 minutes later.

There was an initial breakaway of several riders followed a couple of minutes behind by Carlos Sastre of Cervelo. The peleton was about 6-7 minutes behind the breakaway at that point. As expected, it seemed that they were being relatively conservative at this point in the stage, particularly around the upcoming turn. So, it didn’t seem that they were going all that fast (in contrast to later!). Apparently, we were in the feed zone as several riders had their feed bags with them when they passed by us.

The breakaway

Sastre chasing the breakaway

Here comes the peloton!

Cadel Evans of BMC with Lance in red behind him

Thor in the maillot vert

Cancellera of Saxo Bank with Schleck in the white jersey behind him

Big George Hincapie of BMC in his U.S. Champion jersey

Team cars following the riders

Once the peleton came through, we quickly made our way back to the bus to drive around to the other side of the mountain to see them coming from their descent of the col de Soulor in Argeles. We barely made it to the viewing site in time to see the breakaway coming through, thanks largely to our smooth-talking guide and driver who negotiated with police to get us dropped off right by the route.

Our viewing location

This time the riders were coming off a descent through town and were absolutely flying by us! The breakaway was still intact at this point, with Sastre closing ground and he apparently was eventually able to close the gap later on the course. The peleton had spread out into several groups over the mountain, with many of the sprinters predictably at the back. It was an amazing experience to see how quickly the riders were going as they flew past us, often too fast to snap a good picture unfortunately.

Sastre getting updated on how far ahead the breakaway is

Here comes the maillot jaune in the first group down after the breakaway

Look how spread apart the riders are at this point after the mountain

Cavendish and the other sprinters were among the last groups over the mountain

Once the riders went through, we headed into town to view the remainder of the race as they ascended the col du Tourmalet. We watched the race from a large-screen television that had been set up in an open area of town, and cheered (and booed) Schleck and Contador as they battled up to the mountain-top finish.

What a day.