Cathy Morgan is covering the Tour de France for us. Actually, it's the Tour de Tour de France she's covering. Have you ever thought about spectating that spectacle? In person? That's what we wanted from Cathy, and that's what she'll deliver, in installments.

WHO WANTS TO GO TO THE TOUR?
THE PROLOGUE
APRES STAGE THREE
TTT DAY
THE ALPES
GRENOBLE
THE CARAVAN
ALPE D'HUEZ DAY!
LE 14 JUILLET (BIG PARTY)
WE CAN REST WHEN WE ARE DEAD

WHO WANTS TO GO TO THE TOUR? (written prior to the start)

Remember "Winning" magazine? Do the names Davis Phinney, Charly Mottet, Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Steven Rooks, Phil Anderson, Raul Alcala, Gianni Bugno, Claudio Chiappucci, Steve Bauer, Andy Hampsten, Sean Yates, the Madiot brothers, Ron Kiefel or Jeff Pierce ring a bell? How about the 7-11 team? Team Z? And of course everyone remembers the story of Greg Lemond. Well, stories. The first American to win the Tour, then the horrible gunshot accident and his remarkable comeback win?

Davis Phinney is my all-time favorite cyclist and Charly Mottet, Stephen Roche, Phil Anderson and Andy Hampsten were also big favorites in the late 80s and early 90s. I don't remember how long I've been following the Tour de France, but it was before Greg Lemond's first win in 1986. I still have a tape of the 1989 Tour, which came down to the final day....a time trial into Paris, in which Lemond came from behind to beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds. Back then, before Outdoor Life Network (THANK YOU OLN!), all you saw of the Tour were the highlights, maybe once a week during Wide World of Sports, so you waited on pins and needles for the coverage in "Winning". It still gets one's heart rate up to ride those final kilometers with Fignon and see Lemond, helpless to do anything but wait for the clock. Yes, even back in the late 1980s, I said, "Someday, I'm going to go to see the Tour." Fast forward to July 21, 2002 and many, many issues of "Winning", "Cycle Sport" and "Procycling" magazines in the interim.....

Earlier that day, seven of us had been sitting around Jean's patio drinking a few beers and sitting in the hot tub, when the subject of the Tour came up. I said, "Who wants to go to the Tour with me next year?" Everyone thought it was a grand idea, so that's how we came up with our traveling group of triathletes. Jean, JV, Fred and I are headed out for the first 9 stages—Paris to the Alpes. Dan and Laura are going on a different trip (and their honeymoon!)—Pyrenees to Paris—along with our friends Ron and Karen. And, we hope to meet up with a few other triathletes that we know will be over there at the same time. Oh yes, one more thing. We leave on July 3rd. On June 29th, Jean will be in Squaw Valley, CA on the start line of the Western States 100 run and less than 30 hours after that, will hopefully be crossing the finish line in Auburn, CA. A good warmup for a couple of weeks of cycling, right?

Logistics: Jean, JV, Fred and I are going with an Australian tour company, Bikestyle Tours. The tour package includes hotel, airport pickup, bus transfer, all breakfasts, some dinners, support, two ex-pro riders and one current pro, plus a host of other stuff, including the chance to ride parts of the same routes the Tour covers! (Airfare not included.) It looks like our group will be about 50/50 Aussie/American, with a few Canadians and one each—Kiwi, Brit, Scot and Mexican. The riding will be great, but really, for me, the biggest thrill of the whole trip will be getting to see the Tour live, though I do have in the back of my mind that this will be my own "Epic Camp", a la Gordo and Skid. And, I'm especially keen to check out the Dutch corner on the Alpe d'Huez.

So, internet connections and Slowman willing, I'll be checking in on a regular basis starting 4 July. ALLEZ LANCE! A bientot!!

THE PROLOGUE

We are here!!!!!!! It is so cool to actually be here and see The Tour live. We sat about one K from the prologue finish and saw all 198 riders go by. Lots of people on the course the entire day.

Tomorrow it is off to Reims. This morning we rode two laps of the prologue course—130 people taking over the roads. I am still a little sick, so riding wasn't the easiest.

More later when we find better computer connections. And these darned French keyboards!!! The letters are not in the right place. (Editor's note: we've placed them in the right place).

Oh yeah... we are learning how to outsmart the French police. Got in behind the team buses and were only 10 feet from Botero after the race.

APRES STAGE THREE

First things first, it's probably not the best thing to develop a cough and stuffed nose (allergies or cold?) before flying across the Atlantic. I've had both since I left and now it's full blown laryngitis. At least I am keeping everyone entertained and have gotten to try new things from the pharmacy.

Today was another fairly flat stage in the Champaign region. This part of France is NICE! I will for sure come back here. I rode 20 miles today at a good pace, leading our group out to the base of a hill. Got to the end of the road and we were going to ride the course 10K to the feed zone, but they closed the roads early so we had to ride around. That was enough since I still have a cough and NO VOICE! Barely even a whisper. The other group rode out 100K to the feed zone and Stevo (Neil Stevens, ex pro from ONCE and one of our guides) talked the gendarme into letting the group ride to the feed zone with a police escort. We got to the meeting spot, scored some schwag from the caravan, then put the bikes in the trailer and drank wine and beer. Today is the first time we've gotten back to the hotel before 7PM, so getting back at 4:30 was a treat. We got to watch the finish of the stage and post-stage coverage on TV, then showered, then went and drank a beer with the Aussies. Going to dinner tonight then riding the TTT course tomorrow, I think. You'd never know Lance or Jan were racing since there has been nothing on TV about them.

A few other random things:

Riding through the streets of Paris in a group of about 30 and hearing the symphony of pedals clipping in and out at all the stop lights.

How clean and beautiful the little towns along the course are. They are spotless, no litter, no garish signs. It's amazing! The city of Reims is just fabulous. I will definitely come back here.

It's important to pick the right tour group. We just randomly picked, but sure lucked out. There are some super people on this trip. We are split 60/40 Aussie/American. 90% are great. The 10% who think they are a little above everyone else are, unfortunately, American triathletes. Thank goodness they are not on our bus cause you spend a lot of time with your bus people. In fact, we need to go have some more beers with them now.

A bientot.

TTT DAY

What a great day! Today was the Team Time Trial. We drove to the start and piled out of the buses and who drives by but Jaja. His car was stopped and Patrick Jonker (one of our pro guides) says hi to him. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera out in time. We headed out en mass on the TTT course...yes, WE RODE THE COURSE!!! It started with about a mile climb and the road was lined with people. Lots of "allez, allez" and "c'est dur, oui?" Heck ya, a big oui! We got started late so we were under a lot of time pressure so we hammered pretty much the first 40K. I was in a nice double pace line of 6 (me and the boys) and when I slowed on the hills, ex-pro Michael Wilson put his hand on my back and kept me in the group. We are cruising along and all of a sudden someone in the crowd shouts my name...AMY WHITE has spotted me on the course! Michael says, "You have your own cheering section?" I guess so.

We got stopped a couple of times and had to get off and walk a bit, but we would get past the gendarmes and then hop back on the bike. Finally with less than 20K to go, we turned off on a side road since the caravan was beginning to come through. Thank goodness as I was riding at well over my 40K TT pace. Got to the finish, put the bikes up and watched the rest of the race on the big screen. When a team came through the finish in front of us, it was AMAZING how fast they were going.

After the race, it was a long bus ride back to Reims, but since we are on the party bus, lots of beer, wine and champagne were drunk. One of the Aussie couples got engaged today AT THE TOUR! How cool would that be??

Late dinner tonight and a very long bus trip to Chamonix tomorrow, so probably no report for a day or so. My legs are toast after 3 days of very anaerobic riding, so the time off tomorrow will be nice. It's funny but tonight at dinner, we all realized that it really doesn't matter who is in the race, but rather WE are AT the race. It's a little hard to put into words how cool this whole thing is—the race, the people lining the course, the little towns all decorated, the friendships we've made, the whole ambiance. And we haven't even gotten to the mountains. I'll be back.

THE ALPES

First of all, Chamonix is a totally kicking place. Think of any U.S. ski resort then quadruple the size and make the crowd very international. Pretty cool waking up and looking out our balcony at Mont Blanc. And, the world climbing championships are going on as we speak. Haven't made it over there to watch though since we rode, showered, shopped, had lunch then have been a little busy with the local brew.

The shorter ride group headed out this morning with between 50-60 riders. Steve-o was riding along and his cell phone rang and it was his little daughter calling. "What are you doing Daddy?" "I'm going for a bike ride with some friends." Most folks rode about 50K and two passes. I rode about 15 miles today up to the first pass, the Col des Montets (1,460 meters). Not too bad a climb, just slow and steady, but since I was coughing a lot, I turned around before the Col de Forclaus (sp?) (1,500 meters and in Switzerland). It took me 1:09 to get up to the sommet (summit) of des Montets, then 24 minutes to get down. Too bad we didn't have a closed road and could take the entire lane, then it would have taken me only 15 minutes.

Some guys did a 150K ride and we just saw them on their way to the hotel and they look shelled. No thanks. I'd rather have fun and not have to fall into bed at 7PM. I seem to have given whatever coughing crud I have to a couple of other folks and they are a little ticked at me. Why should I be the only one having fun? So, to help, we have been coating our throats the rest of the afternoon with lots of bieres ;-) But hey, it's helping the cough. Now we are at the internet bar with pints of Kronenbergs and they have the race on the TV. A group dinner tonight, then tomorrow we go ride some more cols and check out the Tour in the mountains. Tomorrow night it's to Grenoble. Too bad we are leaving Chamonix, it's a blast here.

GRENOBLE

OK, when we last left you we were sitting in a cyber bar in Chamonix (Friday, 11 July). Well, we logged off the internet, bought another round and went to sit outside and look at the mountains. We (me, Jean, our buddy JV) got chatting with a guy from Scotland who was in Chamonix for the summer to do some climbing. A number of pints and pictures later, we headed back to our hotel and went to the group dinner. Dinner was quite the lively time and they had to kick us out of the restaurant so they could close it.

We got up the next morning, boarded the bus and headed for Grenoble which would be our base for the next 3 nights. Before we got to Grenoble, we stopped along the way in the town of Mieulley (sp?) which was at the base of the climb to Col de la Ramez (Saturday, 12 July). The group split into a number of groups—some rode a 40K flat ride along the valley floor, some hammer heads did a long ride with a couple of passes, some didn't ride at all, and most of us rode up the Col de la Ramez, a 14K climb with an average grade of 8% (I think). I rode up 5 miles and when I saw the "boissons fraiche" sign, it was time for a water and a Coca Cola.

The route was lined with people the entire way and some people had been there for a couple of days and had elaborate camping systems set up. There was a Kronenburg tent dispensing beer, many campers with full-on grills, TVs, radios, lots of wine and people all over the place. In the few meadows, there were tents covering every flat spot of land.

At the 5-mile-up mark, I decided to ride back down since I was a little cooked. Got back to the buses, put the bike away, changed clothes and met up with Jean and JV and walked down to the village to see if we could get anything to eat. The grocery store was closed, one restaurant only had sausages left to eat, so we went to the bar and found a bunch of our group and half of the village. The beer was cold and the water was wet and one of the our group walked up to the other bar and bought a bunch of pizzas and brought them back. This was the beginning of the heat wave, so sitting inside in the shade without air conditioning was preferable to sitting out in the direct sunshine. And, the bar had a TV and have I mentioned that the Tour is on TV live every single day? Once the caravan started to come through, Jean and I went outside and scored a bunch of stuff from the caravan.

THE CARAVAN

Now the caravan really needs to be seen to be believed. First come the official cars and the police, then each sponsor has 3 or 4 cars/trucks and they blare music and throw freebies. We really like the Aquarel water sponsor and they drive along handing out bottles of water. The other stuff is more like caps, mussette bags and key rings. They all make really good souvenirs and gifts. After the caravan, there is a 30 minute or so break before the race begins to come through. When the peleton is pretty close together, they come through pretty fast and it's over quickly. We were out standing around waiting, and asked two very cute gendarmes (police) if we could get our picture taken with them. Mais, oui! So, a number of pictures later, mission accomplished. We were at an intermediate sprint point, so the speed of the peleton when they went by was pretty quick. All in all, it took less than 10 minutes for the front police, the race officials, the leaders, the peloton, and all the team cars to come by. Then, everyone ran back into the bar to watch the climb up the Col de la Ramez and the end of the stage.

Watching the race in the bar with a mixture of locals and tourists was amazing. We looked around and said it's like an NBA playoff game or something. This was the stage where Richard Virenque went off the front and won the stage and went into yellow, so when he won, the place went nuts. Everyone in France just loves the guy. Why? A total dope'? (If you like cycling, you should read the book by Willie Vogt, "Breaking the Chain", about l'affaire Festina. Very eye opening.) Anyway, after the stage was over, we talked to our gendarmes again and got their names and address to send them copies of the photos. That gave us something to laugh about on the bus ride to Grenoble.

Grenoble. Ugh. A million degrees, no air conditioning. That's about all I can say as my mother might read this. We didn't like Grenoble but we made do.

ALPE D'HUEZ DAY!

We'd been warned about the hellacious traffic to/from the Alpe, so most of the group rode from Grenoble out to the village at the base (B. d'Osians). It was 31 miles, about 8-10 miles flat, then the rest uphill. It didn't seem like that big of a climb going out but it took me about 3 hours (2:48 I think). Got to the village and stopped in a cafe with Patrick Jonker for something cold as it was really hot and really sunny. We decided to ride to check out the Alpe and I rode part way up the first little bit. Some people rode all the way up, part way up, walked up, whatever. The place was a total ZOO! There are estimates that there were 600,000 people on the mountain that day and the temps were over 40C degrees. That is way too hot. After I turned around on the mountain, I stopped in at the grocery store to buy water and who did I see but my friends Dan and Laura who are here on another tour. The three of us headed back to a cafe with a TV and shade and sat at a table with a guy who we later found out is in the same bike club in Australia as the guys who run our tour. Very small world.

Once the Tour hit the top of the last climb before the Alpe, we left the bikes at the restaurant and hiked back to the Alpe and part way up. Seeing it on TV really does it no justice. The people are lined up the mountain the entire way, edging their way into the road leaving only a very narrow passage for the riders to get through. For each group of riders (since this day the peleton was totally blown to bits), there are two motorcycle cops who ride up first weaving side to side to move the crowd back just a bit. When Iban Mayo went through the crowd roared and they kept up the roar and cheers for every single rider, no matter how far behind. We were so close to the riders that you could have reached out and touched them. What really amazed me is just how fast they are going, especially when you know how slow you were going earlier in the day. And this, after hours of very hard riding! The funniest thing that we saw was George Hincapie and Floyd Landis riding behind the main group, each with their own helmet on their head and two teammates' helmets in their hands. Also, someone told us that French cycling clubs strategically place themselves along the mountain to give a push to the slower riders and riders can be strung out up to an hour after the winners have crossed the finish line.

After the first group of riders passed us, we raced back to the cafe to watch the end of the stage. The place went nuts when Lance pipped the group for 3rd and then when he donned the yellow jersey. We will definitely remember that day and faces of the riders as they were riding up the hill in that heat. About 6PM we met at the buses and got a group together to ride back to Grenoble—30 miles mostly downhill!! That is my kind of ride. We headed out and I proceeded to blow some of our group to bits. We ended up split up with some of us hammering all the way downhill (except for a stop to buy more water) and others backing off the pace. What took nearly 3 hours to get there took less than an hour and a half to get back. With each mile, the temperatures rose and the wind increased (headwind, of course) so by the time we got to the valley floor, we had to really work into the wind. Got back to our hotel (aka, the oven), showered, lay there and sweat some more and finally got ready for dinner. Jean had the big knock (aka bonk in American), so she stayed in the room while a group of us went to dinner. Took her back some Chinese food/soup and made a phone call and it was lights out. What a great day.

LE 14 JUILLET (BIG PARTY)

The 14th of July means EVERYTHING is closed, but the country throws a big party. We took the day off riding since it was even hotter than the day before and we were pretty cooked. Took the bus back to the Alpe d'Huez and B. d'Ossians, where the start was. Went to the bike shop there and made some purchases, sat in a cafe right at the start and watched the start roll out. Back to the bus, straight to the Irish pub for lunch and to watch the race on the TV. The tour group took over one part of the bar and we had a great time. The only bad part of the day was the crash by Beloki, which they've showed a few hundred times in replay, both at speed and super slow-mo.

To the hotel to shower and pack after the stage, then sat outside and drank beer with a bunch of folks. Later that evening a few of us went down to the 14 Julliet festivities and danced until the wee hours.

Long bus ride yesterday back to Paris and we are here for 2 more days. The big closing dinner was last night and lots of photographs were taken, addresses exchanged and awards given out. I actually won one—the "lost and found" award, for showing up sick, riding through and finding my voice and as Michael said, "You tried, and that's what's important."

Time for some shopping and wine drinking. I'll report back when we get home and I get my photos online. A bientot!

WE CAN REST WHEN WE ARE DEAD

Well, I am back in San Francisco, but would much rather be in France. We got up at 5AM on Friday, showered, dressed, finished packing, drug the bike cases and luggage downstairs, had some coffee, said goodbye to Terry and were on the shuttle by 6:15AM. A good 29 hours later, I walked into my house. (NOTE: It is definitely worth the extra money to get a direct flight. We definitely do NOT recommend Continental airlines OR the Newark airport.)

I got my first dose of Phil and Paul and OLN yesterday. It's pretty wild to actually know what's going on in the race, and what a race it's become!! People have asked if it's as exciting in person as it seems. It is, especially in the start and finish towns, which have a festival air, and definitely on the mountain stages, but what stands out more to me are the small villages along the flatter stages, where the towns are decorated, the people take the day to sit out with their picnics and wine and cheer on some silly American and Aussies riding their bikes like the Tour heros. Then, hours later, there is the 2 minutes of watching the peloton go by. These are the true cycling fans.

On Wednesday night I ran into my friend Estaban at the hotel. He is doing the second half of the Bikestyles tour and I sat down to tell him about the tour, the staff, what to expect, etc. He made the comment, "You are really happy." Yeah, he was right. I had a fabulous time and I do wish I were still there. It was probably the most fun I've ever had and that includes all the trips to New Zealand, Hawaii, Ireland, and the other trips to Paris. I rode 234 miles over 8 days, most of which were at a really fast pace for me. One day we rode so hard, my legs went numb. But I'd do it all over again tomorrow if I could.

Thanks to the best traveling partner one could have, Jean; our buddy JV, who kept us laughing and "walking, eating, or drinking"; Barry and Dennis, Neil, Gary and Mark, John and Adrian--all of our Aussie bus or dancing mates who made this such a fun trip; to Lawrie and Natalie and all the Bikestyle staff--SteveO, Patrick, Micheal, Terry, all the Johns (Friendship, Jamison, Whip), Gus, Inaki, Craig, Darren; and to the rest of the tour group. We really lucked out getting a great group.

I have a couple hundred pictures to sort through, but will eventually get them online.

Now, it's time to start studying French. Who wants to go next year??? Go Lance!