Le Tour!

I'm going camping tonight to be well-placed to see the Tour de France riders climb one of several cols in tomorrow's Stage 14.  If you are following the Tour, be sure to tune into coverage on Saturday, July 16th and look for me at the Col de la Core.  If the weather is warm (as it is supposed to be), I'll be wearing a hot pink tank top.

 For those of you following the Tour in the States, perhaps you can TiVo or record it.  The race day starts at noon in Saint-Gaudens, which is 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific and 2 AM in Alaska.

Here's the official site for the tour, which has some good maps and hill profile charts:  http://www.letour.fr  Change the stage to Stage 14 to see the portion that goes through the Ariege on Saturday.

Going out in STYLE!

One of the best things about staying with the hosts in the Haute-Garonne is that they let me borrow the car on the weekends. Other hosts have let me use their cars, but this one was....

a FIAT Barchetta convertible!

Needless to say, I got a lot of looks and felt conspicuous but it sure was fun on the curvy mountain roads. One afternoon, I took a little drive to the town of Saint-Gaudens, the main supply town for the part of the Haute-Garonne I was staying in. It could be an attractive place but its mountain views are marred by a paper factory that bellows smoke and a stench that you'd certainly recognize if you've lived near or driven through Longview, Washington. Otherwise, it's not such a bad place...

   

   

For those of you following the Tour de France, Saint-Gaudens is the start of the 14th stage which takes place on July 16th. I will be somewhere along the route that day. Stay tuned - it will be a beautiful and difficult stage and the coverage will give you a chance to see a lot of the Ariege.