We’re in Angoulême and I forgot to say last night, for the first time in this Tour, I got a prediction right. I chose Casar out of the four man break, you could see it in his eyes, he wanted it more than any of the others.
There’s a great picture of him on the front cover of L’Equipe today – it’s all there in his face, determination and pride; “maybe the other French guys can’t win a stage, but I sure as hell can!”
Cafè au lait (have you noticed that Martin has shown me how to get accents above the letters now?) and a Cognac, nine euros!?! “Eef you cannot steeff les touristes, then oo’ can you steeff, hien?” Still, it was a good coffee, a grande measure of cognac and the toilets were free of Lasa Fever.
We’ve just passed the stage finish, but we have to go to the start to get on the course, there’s absolutely no danger of getting on to it from a side road, even with creds.
It’s nice country here, flat with unfenced fields of sun flowers and grape vines stretching away from the road to the horizon.
Finding the start was a doddle today, and even getting the crucial yellow sticker, which you need to follow a rider in a test, wasn’t too bad.
We had a great day, following Charly was cool, even though he’s no specialist you can’t fail to be impressed by the bike handling and speed.
I said to Martin that as you get older, you get better at recognising the times of your life when you are having them, and not after the fact.
Following Charly today, through the beautiful vineyards of Cognac with huge, screaming crowds at the top of the drags – an experience I’ll never forget.
Like I said, in some places the crowds were huge, but not consistently-so, and I can’t help but feel that maybe all the scandal is biting, as far as road-side presence goes.
We shared wine and cheese with some nice local folks, it was great; when it was time to go there were hand-shakes all-round.
It sounds corny, but you meet the best folks roadside at le Tour.
The time checks we took were showing that there was a real battle going-on, it was unlikely that Leipheimer or Cabel could win, but the fact that 31 seconds now cover the top three speaks for itself.
We were standing at 10K to go and there was a good buzz there, but the radio commentary wasn’t the usual frenzy, rather matter of fact it was.
The press room is never exactly friendly and it’s uncool to get excited about the racing, but it was even ‘flatter’ and more subdued than usual.
I’m not daft on the press room, it’s bad for my kharma, I’m so full of enthusiasm for the racing and I feel it drain out of me when I walk in the place – or maybe it’s just me.
Contador’s press conference took place next door and he had no-sooner sat down, than the Puerto questions started. I don’t know what his involvement was with Fuentes, but if you ask the same questions today as you did yesterday and the day before, you’ll get the same answers.
Especially given that I know he speaks at least a little English, but he’ll only take questions in Spanish. This means he’s hearing most questions twice, before he answers them.
He also seems quite a thick-skinned wee cookie, he sits there impassively as the Puerto this, that and the other questions come at him. If he was involved, shouldn’t the UCI have acted?
It’s now 23.41 and we’re nearly in Paris, I even took a wee shot of driving. I’m going to go on the internet and see if I can get details of the French driving test.
I’m particuarly interested in learning to tail-gate correctly and also the new arrangement of manouvere, signal and what’s a mirror?
To get points on your licence in France, you would have to fire an RPG out the back window at a squad car.
Anyway, a good day, but I’ll be glad to see a pillow. Last day tomorrow – Boonen?
