Day 14-Friday

This was our second day of Tour viewing, stage 13, an individual time trail where each rider races the course by himself.  Usually time trials are flat stages, and often only 30 km in length. This time travel, however, was only 11 km long, but it was in the mountains  and a continuous climb from start to finish.  

We did not have to get up as early for this stage since it was being held only 20 km from our hotel, starting in the village of Loudenveille.  We were very familiar with route, it followed the route of a stage that we attended in 2022. Our scouting trip on Wednesday, however, made us very skeptical that we could return to the same spot we chose in 2022.  We doubted that the  road would be open since there were already caravans all along that route 48 hours before the race.

So we opted for plan B, and we ended up with a fantastic viewing spot, one of our best over all the years that we've been attended the tour.

Our new BFFs.  A delightful family from Belgium, where cycling is king. 

Joni is in the center of this photo, our white Renault is to the right of her, and the black car to the left of her belongs to our new BFFs.  Notice how this tiny village is surround by tall peaks!

A company from the Guadaloupe and Martinique gave away free bananas to all passersby, and they kept us entertained all morning with their music and antics.

This man is not one of the racers, as his build suggests; he's just an amateur getting a banana.

The first cyclist started at 1:10 PM and the last started at 5:10 PM.  There were 173 racers still in the race, and they start in reverse order with the yellow jersey going last.  We really love watching the time trails since you get to see each rider and you know who they are because a support car displaying the rider's name follows behind.

American Neilsen Powless from the Education First team.

Very popular Belgium rider Wout van Aert

Our Belgium BFFs cheering on their countryman Olympic Gold Medalist Remco Evenpoel

Our favorite rider, Durango Colorado native, Sepp Kuss

This Belgium family enthusiastically cheered on every rider from the first to the last!

A Tour groupie?

The un-official mayor of Armenteule, who was allowing our Belgium BFF's to camp out in his garden.  The mother of our BBF's stayed in his B&B 35 years ago.

The mayor urging on Tadej Pocagar, who won this stage.  His 4th stage win in this year's Tour.

One of the reason we love going to France to watch the Tour is the incredible friendliness of the other spectators. In the above photo, Joni is visiting with a Danish woman, in the red poncho, and her son, who sits right next to Joni.  When the caravan was passing by, the Orangina vehicles were handing out small cans of their beverage.  If you haven't tried it, it's a perfect drink on scorching hot days.  The Danish woman noticed that we unsuccessfully reached out to grab a can, so she came over to our seats and gave us one of hers.  The Danes are also cycling fantatics, as reflected in the woman's poncho.  Their favorite rider is Jonas Vingegaard, who won the Tour in 2022 & 2023, but just can't keep up with Pogacar anymore. 

Once the race ended it took us two hours to get back to Arreau, which was only 20 km away.  That is just typical post-race traffic; very similar to trying to get away from Gillette after a Patriots game.

We arrived back at the hotel around 7:30 with just enough time to unpack our car and get ready for dinner.  As usual, our meal was excellent.  The Hôtel d'Angleterre offers a fixed menu package, so we never have to debate what to order.  It makes dinner debate free, and we always like what is offered.  Tonight's dinner was delicious.