By Chris Brewer

A day behind on my blog, sorry about that, but time and internet priority went to the videos from yesterday instead.  When you’re in the mountains, internet connectivity is spotty at best, so you have to go with the main priority first!

No More Mr. Nice (t-shirt) Guy: The Shack’s staffer / photog Glenn Kasin had a great time working the crowd and throwing team t-shirts at the Tour of California.  At Le Tour?  Not so much.  Glenn (thought he) was prepared for Round 2, but in Belgium he was essentially assaulted by the crowd grappling for the shirts.  “I basically threw the box as far as I could and ran, and then turned around and watched a near fist fight to get the free shirts.”  From now on, you have to know what he looks like and ask for one nicely.  In private.

Crowded at the Bus: An unusual situation at the bus today in that the chute the team buses were in just had enough room for the support cars to drive by parallel.  Add in that folks with passes are allowed to be around the bus, and that lead to some close calls for their toes.  Apparently the common phrase, “car back!” translates well in French, too.

Obligatory Story #1: I’m a day late and probably a Euro short, but it is in the cycling journalists creed that I had to mention that yesterday was 1] Bastille Day and 2] every French rider wants to win.  Scoreboard: Portugal.

Obligatory Story #2: Every journalist has a story about getting lost at the Tour, I have a different spin – almost getting lost.  My hotel last night was somewhere in the Alps, and no, I have nothing to really complain about save for a bubble blowing, laser shooting karaoke session below my room that thankfully ended relatively early.  Up and at ‘em and out the door, just an hour or so to the start.  Or so I thought.

The kms on the GPS looked right, as did the general direction of the path.  But I forgot one big lesson and went rookie for a few hours…  In France the “A” roads are the Autoroutes.  Think superhighway, 80 mph, and you will pay and pay and pay to use them.  Gladly.  At the opposite end are the “D” roads.  I’m not sure but I believe “D” stands for Dirt, as asphalt is often lacking or in shoddy repair.  You don’t really want to drive on them as they’re about a car and a quarter wide or less and winding.  You DEFINITELY don’t want to drive on them in the mountains unless it’s a closed road on the race route.  I was not on the race route, I was in the Alps, and I had 30 miles till the start in Sestron.

Your French sign phrase for the day: Route Barré.  Can you guess what that means?  Pretty sure you can – the Route is Barred.  French road repair likes to place it about 1km from the problem so you can drive 10km or so first before seeing the sign and turning around.  I saw it twice today.

It’s also my experience that the lower the number, the worse the road.  For example, the road leading into Sisteron was D943, two lanes, no problems.  However the 25 miles prior I was on the D1, and I don’t think there is a D0.  Mile after mile traversing 3 Cols with spectacular drop offs of over 1,000 feet (guardrail shmardrail!), my only recourse to swear profusely at Bitchin’ Betty, my automated GPS companion as she time and time again took me to the abyss of what I knew was certain death.

The final point of stress was a seven section set of switchbacks with just 300m between them, so steep that there was a wall to stop you from falling over on the outside, then the mountain to your inside.  The entire section was one car width wide.  I had to stop and look over and make sure another car wasn’t coming as there was simply nothing you would be able to do other than get in a fight  - someone was going have to back up, and it sure wasn’t going to be me!  In America this kind of road wouldn’t be allowed.  In France it doesn’t even warrant a warning sign.  Who’s the sissy now?  The guy looking at me in my rear view mirror, apparently…

Ciao for now, still alive and well and on Tour.  Monsieur?  Un carafe of Vin Rouge, s’il vous plait?...