Day 12

Great place to spend seven hours.

Looking south into Spain

Looking east to the Col de Peyresourde, the first of three summits for today's Tour

The high peaks bring out the crazies...

Posing for their grandmere

The first three riders...notice the guy in third is wearing the polka dot, aka the "king of the mountains",  jersey

Another fabulous dinner at Hotel d'Angleterre

Day 12

Today was a special day in the Tour, unlike any other.  Stage 17 was only 65 km long, whereas most of the stages are over 200 km.   This stage was nothing but steep mountains with no flats in between.  They even implemented a starting grid, with the fastest overall riders placed at the front,  similar to Formula 1 racers, in order to prevent teams from immediately grouping together to protect and help their lead rider.

All three peaks are within 20 km of our hotel in Arreau, so we had a tough choice where we would view today’s stage.  The last peak, the highest in this year's Tour, was only accessible by a tram, the roads were so narrow that they banned cars, so we picked the one in the middle, Col de Val Louron-Azet, and we really lucked out, getting a spot with incredible views, and in fact we were even able to see the racers descending from the first peak, the Col de Peyresourde.

We arrived just after 9 AM, and although the weather was supposed to cloud up by 11 AM, with thunderstorms for the remainder of the day, it stayed sunny.  We were very glad to have our shade dome!

The day went quickly, we continually enjoyed the view and also had a couple of great conversations with an English couple.  The racers arrived around 4:15 PM and were all past us within 15 minutes.  We were back in our hotel by 5 PM and we got to watch the last 7 km of the race on the TV in the hotel bar with a bunch of fun loving Aussies.  (are there any other kinds).

Unpack, nap, & shower followed by an 8:30 dinner that was our best so far.  What a treat to be able to have such great meals without having to drive anywhere.  Kind of like home!