Galibier - GOing back down again!

Now being seasoned TDF campaigners we had determined that Alpe d’Huez had been closed for several days due to the hoards of campervans lining the roads to see the finish of the 109.5km stage. A short stage for sure except for the fact that the riders had been taken down from the previous days finish on top of Galibier and taken to Modane to start today, requiring them to ride back up the other side of Galibier (the evil side we were told by one cyclist with 10-12% inclines) and then ride up another of the large Alpes – D’Huez

Not to have a repeat of yesterdays dramas with the traffic we got up at 7am (definitely a record) and headed straight for Galibier, the plan for today being to stay on the Southern side to watch the cyclists descent.

Following the Lampre truck up the mountain

Amazing Alps, more campervans and cyclists

We scored a perfect position , parking Mulder right alongside the track and dressed him up in the Aussie flag all ready to cheer on Cadel determined this would be HIS day.

Mulder wearing the Aussie Flag

Mulder's horrible view...

AS it was now only about 9am and the riders weren’t due to pass until 4pm or so we decided to walk up the Col du Lautaret, about  500m walk. There were a couple of bar/cafes mainly occupied by cyclists (of course) and a cute souvenir show with sheep bells, manned by an Irish girl.

Bike riders drinking coffee - how unusual

Still with a lot of our time on our hands we thought why not walk uphill toward the Galibier summit. Little did we know it was a 8.9km walk!

Road Graffiti for Cadel

View from near the top

We got some great views of the valley, surrounding mountains and road graffiti (mainly for the Schleks and Contador). With a couple of K’s to go hunger and thirst was getting the better of us so we went the quick way back down, finding a goat track to make our perilous descent.

Me finding my way down, didnt even fall on my bum

After lunch back at Mulder the moment had arrived for the riders to come through. Dad had sent us a text message earlier to tell us that unfortunately Cadel had a mechanical failure with his bike and was 1.5mins behind after having to completely change bikes – race over Cadel. But wait... He staged a come back – climbing a descending Galibier like a demon to catch the leaders. Dave is sure his screams of GO CADEL! as he passed ultimately contributed.

The riders flying past

After all the riders passed we headed back up to the cafe at Col du Lautaret and watched the final 35ks on a TV. It was tense. Surrounded by French bitterly disappointed that Frenchman Vokkler was going to lose his yellow jersey but happy that it was going to Andy Schlek – EVERYONES favourite (I don’t like him for some reason)

They booed Contador (except when he punched a spectator in the face for running alongside him too closely) and made what we were pretty sure were derogatory comments and jokes about Cadel, but we didn’t care, we cheered him on anyway.

In the end Cadel managed to make up a few seconds on the Schleks, now coming 3^rd about 57seconds from the lead. With the timetrial tomorrow being Cadel’s specialty he is still in with a change.... fingers crossed!

Calming the nerves with a hot choccy after the race is over