On Tuesday evening we jetted out to Annecy for a quick rest from all the recent trials and tribulations. The Tour de France caravan was coming to town for Stage 18 - the 40km individual time trial round the lake.
Having checked the availability of space on the local campsites, we had bought flights, hired cars, etc then found that the campsites were fully booked! So we found a lovely little hotel for our first night in the medieval center of town, great apart from the 30mins spent trying to get through the tiny streets of the old one way system.
Having finally found a campsite with space on Wednesday morning, we set up camp and returned to a bar in Annecy to watch the action of Contador win Stage 17.
So with all the roads closed on Thursday morning, we took the early ferry boat up to Annecy, to get into the middle of the action. The sponsors caravan can only be described as nutts, after which, the time trial could commence. We spent the day moving between the Start, finish and the "paddock" where you really can get up close to the riders; Thor, Contador, Van Develde, Hincapie, Sastre, Millar etc. The only rider that we couldn't get close enough to see the colour of his eyes was Lance Armstrong. Only by standing on an official car could I get to see the Big Texan dressed in Livestrong colours warming up on his time trial machine. Bradley Wiggins proved elusive and hadn't shown for his warm-up by the time we left to follow them down the lake. Our ferry back down the lake set off as Bradley started, and we paced him for the first 5 minutes on the lake side road. A little further down the lake, there on the adjacent stretch of road was Lance on his fantastic Livstrong time trial bike. Bubbles, bread and cheese outside the tent was then perfect end to a great day in the mountains.
May I apologize to anyone on our campsite as we left at 4 o'clock this morning. I hope you managed to get back to sleep!
