Friday, July 24, 2009

Tour de France, part II the race


And the race is about to come our way, but first the Caravan, lead by Vittel, the bottled water company.

...and more sponsors come whizzing by at about 45 to 50 mph...

..and more...

and the Yeti of Skoda...

Finally something I would use and do use...HARIBO GUMMI BEARS!

Paul got tossed a bag of licorice twist..how did they know he loves licorice!

And the first of the riders ....

the leaders FLY BY.....

See I was there!!!

And here come the rest....

GO LANCE!!!!!!! BE STRONG!

so how close they ride by..and this is slow, they had just come up over the mountain and not gotten the speed up.

Near the end.....

Happy and wet face as we walk down...

..in a hurry to grab an Espresso!

Rain de France or Tour deluge! Part 1

Pre-race tail gate, of course!

And this is how clear is was at the bottom of the mountain at Marksheim. We need to go back on a sunny day, I am sure it is beautiful.

Skoda, the official car sponsor. And these little cars flew down the rode.

Point of reference:

the cows in the field reminded me of a Swiss valley

Start of the Race Fans.

..and the race stuff begins...I got the pink shirt!

fixing our flag for the walk up....

Cool!, just plain cool!

Long way from Florida...

The guys in front of me were speaking English, both with peculiar accents, don't think English was either of their mother tongue, but then that is how the world is communicating these days.

Almost to the top, 1280 M (4,199 ft) is not too shabby of a climb.

We have reached the top and the clouds are really this thick! and the place is really this crowded!

We meet the Americans! and are invited back to their tent for a bit to eat. I could tell they shop a the commissary, as few of the things they had were from Germany. But those American hotdog rolls did taste good.

....hanging out by the side of the road, waiting for the race to begin...

....picture opps...

Add the whole crowd, minus the fotographer...

fans of the rider from Luxemburg....

and it was Cold and rainy prior to the race!

I caught this lady as she was putting her dog in her jacket.