Day 11

Philippe Gilbert, lead all racer over the Col de la Portet d'Aspet,  but crashed while descending.

Team Sky, leading the Peloton and protecting the Yellow Jersey

 Arnaud Démarre, a sprinter who was last in today's race.  and accordingly is referred to as the Lanterne Rouge

Looking west toward the Col d'Aspin, taken from our other hotel window.

Our viewing spot for Stage 16, 7 km from the top of the Col de la Menté 

Our menu at l'Hotel d'Angleterre

Day 11

Our first breakfast at the hotel was as wonderful as we expected.  We just had a simple continental breakfast, but the freshly baked croissants and tartines are melt in your mouth fantastic, and the French butter…oh, la, la

On the road by 8:30 am, we were headed for the Col de Menté, which will be the second and highest of the three climbs in today’s stage.  The start up the climb to the Col de Menté is only about 90 minutes from our hotel, but it’s never a certainty that you be allowed to drive up the climb, so we were thrilled when we arrived at the lass crossroads, which was loaded with police, and their vehicles, but they let us pass.  

We drove half way up the climb, there weren’t many open spots, but we got lucky and staked our claim for the day.  We've had fantastic luck getting to great viewing spots this year!

The riders arrived earlier than we expected even though we were getting live on-line text updates from Cycling News.  There was a huge lead group, 40+ riders, none of whom were competing for the overall general classification title, so the peloton allowed them a seven minute lead.  The route was very steep where we were watching, so the racers moved very slowly, giving us great views and great photo opportunities.  

We were especially excited to finally get to see American Lawson Craddock pass us.  He rides for the Education First team.  He had a terrible crash on the first stage, breaking his collarbone, but he’s refused to drop out and is donating money to a fund for the Houston Flood victims.  When we were last watching the Tour on US television, back at Stage 9, donations were about $100,000.  He’s amazing!

We were back in our car and heading to Arreau by 4 pm.  The traffic was slow at first, so it took us almost two hours to get to Arreau and the Hotel d’Angleterre.

We unpacked, decided what we want to bring with us tomorrow, showered and headed to dinner.  Dinner was fabulous and the photos do justice to the quality of tonight’s meal.

Our big highlight of the day came however, when NBC cycling commentator Bob Roll, sat down in the dinning room, and then was joined by his colleagues Christian Van de Velde, and Paul Burgmeister.   We spared them of selfies, but we did talk to them briefly, just to let them know we are huge fans.  They were very friendly and didn’t make us feel like we were bothering them at all.  Last year Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, also of NBC, stayed here and we talked with them at both dinner and breakfast, so we were hoping they’d return.  But getting to see Bobke, Christian, & Paul was just as big a treat.