Le Tour stage 10

Andy Schleck's bike (current race leader)



Levi Leipheimer



Jens Voigt



Spectators

July 14 Chambery

We weren’t sure what was going to happen with the second half of our day today when we woke up. All we knew was that we were going into Chambery for the start of stage 10. We strolled into Chambery at about 9:30 even though the race didn’t start until 1:00. Regardless, it was still packed. I’m not sure if all starts are that crowded, but today was also a national holiday so I’m guessing people didn’t have to work and came down for the festivities. At the start, there are booths, lots of people, and a Tour de France stage with commentators. Of course we couldn’t understand much of what was going on until the riders actually showed up. It was fun to experience the difference in personal space between us and the French. In fact, later we ran into some British people who were commenting on it as well. We also ran into one of the guys from the Seattle crew that we met on the Col de Madeleine. We hung out with him for the rest of the start. He and Nate were able to get some pretty sweet spots next to the barriers as the riders came through to start the race. Then afterwards, they also jumped the barriers to take a picture in front of the Tour de France banner. Of course, they were ready to play the foreigner card and just say that at home everyone jumps barriers. Coming out of that unscathed and starting a trend for the onlookers who also wanted a picture in front of the banner, we headed to lunch. All the cafes and restaurants were packed because of the Tour yet all of them were understaffed because of Bastille Day. It took us a while to even order and our Seattle friend had to leave to catch his train before anyone even waited on us. Capitalist moneymaking idea #37: overstaff your restaurant the day the tour comes through your town (and throw a tv in the mix with the tour on). After lunch we tried to go grocery shopping and discovered that stores are also closed on national holidays. So we stopped at a side of the road produce stand and bought fruit to get us by. (We had some dinner but no breakfast with us). Then we headed to our campsite where we decided to stay another night. We watched the tour, caught up on the internet, did laundry, ate dinner, drank our 3 euro bottle of wine and went to bed. Tomorrow we will head to Annecy.

~10 k
Mo