As it all turned out, we were able to see a portion of the last of the mountain
stages from Pau to Bayonne – the stage that had the steepest climb of the whole
race. It was surprisingly difficult to get detailed information on the exact
routing of the tour. (How do you say, “Which highway, EXACTLY will the riders be
on?” in French?) We looked in the local paper and found many interesting charts
outlining the climb, statistics, and rider information… but no specific road
details. So when we started out this morning we were working based on general
rather than specific information.

We found the general area and eventually we figured we must be along the route.
Perhaps the police officers every 100 meters gave it away? We were planning to
head to a good spot right before the summit, but about 25km from our ideal spot
(but still in the mountainous portion of the stage), there was a police
barricade. It was time to drop the car and hike.

We climbed a few kilometers and found a great little spot to sit and wait for
the festivities. There were quite a few people on bikes…doing the climb with
their picnic baskets, flags and signs. We saw one guy on his bike who had an
American football helmet on with horns coming out of it. He was wearing a
Houston football jersey with the name Armstrong on the back. I turned to Mark
and said, “What is he supposed to be?”  And his response was “He’s a Texan,
isn’t it obvious?”

Of all the characters that we saw, our favorite was a guy who decided to watch
the race across the street and a bit up the hill from us. Mark and I dubbed him
“Stick Man.” The first thing this older gentleman did when he arrived was walk
over to the tree and break off a small branch with leaves. This was his cheering
implement for the day’s festivities.

The “caravan” was the first big event of the day. It’s basically a high speed
parade where anyone and everyone who wants to advertise their product or service
hires some pretty girls to ride in a car at 60km per hour and throw things at
the spectators. We were treated to all sorts of fun stuff from coffee, candy,
and crisps to key chains, note pads, and baseball caps advertising supermarkets.
Too bad we didn’t actually want to keep any of it. During the caravan… Stick Man
wiggled his stick and hollered at the pretty girls hoping that he’d get some
free stuff. Then it was time for the real event. We knew that the tour was
coming because we could hear the helicopter.  Stick man started going crazy…
waving his stick with one hand and making a motorcycle revving motions with the
other.

The tour went by all so fast, but it was great. Seeing these guys climb that
hill on their bikes was inspiring. They made it look so easy!! We tried really
hard to get a picture of Lance Armstrong… and Mark was almost successful.
Almost.