Riding the Tour de France Alps and Meeting Cadel Evans

Report from Elizabeth Hartman - TrainingPeaks correspondent at the Tour de France
The Alps, Monday July 21st, 2008

Yesterday was a tough day for almost everybody: Cadel lost the yellow jersey, Oscar Pereiro missed a turn and went over the guard rail and broke his arm. And I didn't make it to the top of the Col d'Agnel as I had planned due to a combination of cold, hunger, and fatigue.

Everything started out pretty well on Sunday morning, when I began riding around 7am towards the first big climb in the Alps with my father and his friend Dan, but about two hours into the climb, the freezing rain started to put a damper on all the fun, and by the time I made it to the last little village before the final climb up to the summit, I was so miserable that I decided to knock on the door of the first friendly looking place that I came to and beg for a cup of tea. The family at the door that I ended up knocking on took pity and offered me much more than just tea, inviting me to stay for lunch and watch the riders go by afterwards from the comfort of their glass-covered terrace - I was so relieved and grateful that I even got a little choked up and tried to sputter my heartfelt thanks in a combination of tears and grammatically incorrect French.

After the riders passed, with Cadel still safely in the lead pack, I sped back down the mountain to get the car and drive over to Cuneo, where the riders are spending their rest day. The drive was much longer than it looked on the map, plus I got stuck in a caravan of official Tour de France big rigs coming over the final pass into Italy, so by the time I made it to the campground I was so exhausted and hysterical that the most I could do was devour a pizza and go to bed. Phew!

Saturday was a bit better than Sunday - I got to meet Cadel Evans and the rest of the Silence Lotto team right before the start in Nimes, and instead of freezing rain the biggest challenge was the heat. Watch the clip here to see a clip of me trying not to sweat too hard as I give Cadel a hug from the team at TrainingPeaks.

Wish him luck in the next couple of days - he is only seven second back from Frank Schleck, the current rider in the yellow jersey. But he has a lot of big mountains to climb before finishing at the Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday. After that, it's pretty much a straight shot back to Paris, so whoever is in yellow at the starting line on Thursday will probably be in yellow on the Champs-Elysees.