Grupetto

It's been very hard to pick the image to blip today, but decided upon this one in the end as it seemed to best convey the unique atmosphere of the Tour de France. It has the scenery, the colour, a sense of the endeavour, and also the ubiquitous camper van, of which there are tens of thousands lining the route. The valley in the distance is where we have just ridden up from. This is the Grupetto, the large group of riders who are not natural climbers, not contending the general classification (overall placing) but in the race either as support for their team leader or out to win stages in a breakaway or in the final sprint. These guys are the real heroes of the race for me. They are seen here coming through well over half an hour behind the winner, forming a group to support each other and survive to fight another day.

Our day went very much according to plan. A steady ride up to the Col du Lautaret at just over 2000m and then a long descent to the beautiful old town of Briancon for lunch, where I could have blipped this for a bit of fun! We then reversed our tracks, following the stage route all the way back up to the Col du Lautaret and then on up to within just over a kilometer from the summit of the Col du Galibiier at 2645m, where we were stopped from going any further. I was tempted to blip this view of the crowd-lined hairpins taking the race to the summit of the col in the last 3km.

The day belonged to Andy Schleck, seen here powering his way to a courageous victory, taking time out of all his opponents and getting within 15 seconds of the yellow jersey. Nobody with the exception of Cadel Evans was prepared to chase him down, although in this shot of the chase group it is Pierre Roland ahead of his team leader Thomas Voeckler (in the leader's yellow jersey), followed by Cadel Evans and Frank Schleck. Voeclker's ride to retain the yellow jersey will undoubtedly do down in the legends of tour history. He gave everything ... and then some. It's now 35 years since the French had a winner of their own race. Tommy winning would be like having a Brit win Wimbledon!

NB The internet connection here is too slow to load the other images I wanted to link to so that will have to wait for another day. I need to get some sleep. Another big day tomorrow. Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday.