Day 5

Our second day of Tour watching started like the first, up at 4 AM and on the road by 4:30 AM.    Our drive today was slightly shorter and we arrived at a beautiful viewing site at 6 AM, about 9 KM below the summit of the Col du Pre.  We had hoped to get closer to the summit but since the road is so narrow the police were not allowing anyone to park along that part of the tour route.  

That was a little disappointing since the riders pedal must faster on the less steep sections, but our spot had spectacular views, so we were satisfied.  We were just outside the village of Areches,  which hosts a ski area.  Areches is an iconic village in the French Alps. The hills are dotted with randomly placed chalets of every size, each very well maintained with beautiful woodwork and what must be mandatory flower boxes.  Even the hotels incorporate the hotel design.

Around lunch time we walked into Areches, where a festival was in progress.  An ompah band complete with accordions and costumed dancers were performing on a newly constructed stage.  

This was one of the most decorated villages that we’ve seen in all our years of Tour watching.  Beautiful flowers formed in the shape of the cyclists jerseys, and multi-colored bikes were in every yard.  

For anyone who wants "more cowbell", Areches would be the place to visit.

We purchased some postcards, a small pizza, a small quiche, and two cold Oranginas which we brought back to our car for lunch.  At this point in the day the temp was soaring into the high 80’s so we were thrilled to have our shade dome which helped us escape some of the heat.  

A modified caravan parade came by around 1:30 pm.  The steepness of this climb forced a “caravan deviation”, so only the smaller vehicles passed us.  Nevertheless we were showered with an abundance of Tour Swag, most of which is what Noah refers to as “instant garbage”.

The first riders arrived around 3:30 PM in a large group of about 30.  This was the second climb of the day, so some large gaps had already formed and the peloton was nearly 5 minutes back. 

 Although we thought our section wasn’t that steep, most of the riders looked very winded and there heads were down.  

Three time World Champion, and already a winner of two stages in this year's Tour, Peter Sagan, looking exhausted.

The last rider, “the lantern rouge” was the sprinter Mark Cavendish, who has won over 30 Tour stages over the years.  However, he looked exhausted and from what I’ve read in papers he has really struggled  in the mountains this year.

And now as I write post this blog two days later, I've learned that Cavendish dropped out after this race...as did many other sprinters.

Our drive back to the hotel in Grenoble took about 1 hour longer due to heavy traffic, but we got to our room just in time to watch the end of the race on television.  Amazingly Team Sky riders Gerraint Thomas, whose Welsh, and Englishman Chris Froome, finished 1^stand 3^rdon this stage, and are now 1^stand 2^ndin the overall General Classification.  I’m sure the French are pissed.  Nothing pisses them off more than having Brits winning anything.  I’m not sure why that animosity exists…amazingly they seem to like the Germans.

We showered, put on clean clothes and walked to our dinner restaurant,  L’Ardoise, where we had an 8:00 PM reservation.  The restaurant is rated #21 out of  798 restaurants in Grenoble, so it’s obviously very popular, and it clearly lived up to it’s reputation.  We started off with a bottle of rose, for entrees Joni had Italian style foccia covered in lettuce, tomato, & mozzarella, and I had just tomatoes & mozzrela on a bed of arugla.  Joni’s main dish was veal and I had Angus beef carpaccio with capers. Profiteroles for both of us for dessert. I forgot to take photos of this meal, but it was one of our best.

Lastly, we were back in our hotel room by 9:30 PM, and asleep very quickly.