I considered titling this post "A long overdue post" but this title has been far over used. Instead I shall call it A post for you Greedy Bastards!

First I would like to share a couble of random thoughts.

Powerbar Gel shots taste like shit! You would think that a company that specialized in energy/supplement products could make a decent tasting product, but no.

Do you ever ride up a large hill, get to the top, and think you have nothing left (with the exception of Brian, because he doesn't tire), then catch a long strech of downhill and think "How the hell am I going to get back up?" I was there today.

I take my camera with me on rides but fail to ever capture a shot.

I love riding my road bike on the dirt!

Thats all for now, but I am sure I will come up with more thoughts through out this post. So here we go with a trip/last couple of weeks recap!

Ready...Set...Go! Its TRIP RECAP GO TIME!

I won't bore you with the flight details as I already posted on such events, but I will tell you that flying first class is amazing and If you have the means I highly recommend it.

As soon as I stepped out of customs I was a little concened as to how I was going to locate my friends in this strange land/huge airport, but sure enough I there they were holering for me no more than 20 steps away. We obtained the rental car and set off for out 7 some odd hour drive to Briancon. Luckily my friends Gabe and Carol had purchased a TomTom navigational device and let me tell you this thing was amazing!

Aside from the driver T-squared wouldn't let ya get lost. Again if you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.

Braincon was the finish of stage 9 located just beyond Alpe d'huez and Col de Galiber. My friends treated me with a day trip to the famous Alpe d'Huez on the rest day. And let me tell you (rather than show you because I lost my pictures some how) that is one wicked climb and the sights at the top are spectacular. While my friends did a bit of shopping I watched riders trickel in, but figured counting them was useless as I quickly ran out of fingers, toes and other apendages. The next day consisted of a whole lot of sitting and shoving protecting our valuable rail viewing of the finish line. I read some where that many cultures love to just stand in line and others feel that they are above lining up. The French belong to the latter. This old broad just kept slowly creeping her hand in only a mere hour prior the the arival of the riders as I had been there since 8. It started with a thumb, then an index finger to acompany the thumb and perhaps a whole grip upon the bar as she caught us off guard as I took a swig of water. I would slowly muscle her out then the process would start again. This went on for about 30-45 minutes before Carol turned around and shouted "If you wanted our spots you should have been here at 7:30 before we got here!" This kept Old Lady Magilacutty at bay for aprox. 2 minutes, but you guessed it, she is a persistent one and the process started once again.

We caught the riders come in and quickly decided to catch a feed zone the next day.

Thanks to the 'ol TomTom we found the town that was hosting the feed zone no problem! This is when the human error factor comes into play. They mark the feed zone with a START and a FINISH sign for the riders, and we decided we should be somewhere about 1k or so beyond the start of the feed zone. Great idea you say, unfortunately we managed to set up shop 1k or so from the FINISH of the feed zone. Damn! But despite that we met some really cool dutch and I even managed to snag a Predictor-Lotto Musette.

For our next adventure we decided to brave another start line, this time in Marseille. Marseille is located right on the Med and they close the roads quite early, making it terribly difficult to reach you destination. So we parked and decided to hoof it the the start line, not the most efficient idea ever. As we were walking we were asking the police how far to the finish and we were told about 3k, not to bad , right? I have found unfortunately that the French have a terrible sence of distance and time. 3k ended up being about 10k. We didn't make it the the start line, but we ended up doing one better, the official depart. Following the riders pass we were swarmed by local kids asking us questions in broken english and teasing us in French. I was told by a passing gentleman that these are "Sons of Bitches" I feel that he was refering to rioters. I proposed a speedy exit.

We left the city and headed to Cassis, a beautiful seaside town with spectacular views, but no nude beaches.

After Cassis we headed to Monpellier, I was excited to head for Montpellier because this is where I met my friends from Texas two years ago. We snapped a few photos and had a few photos snapped of us.

A photo for Brian on the left and you may not be able to completely tell, but the photo on the right is of Michael Rassmussen right after the scandal started. He is completely surrounded by Gendarms as he is chased by photographers on his way to sign in.

Next stop Lezat-Sur-Leze! Two years ago this was the smallest town to ever host a start in the tour. We decided to return and look up a couple of friends from our last visit. We shared drinks and exchanged gifts with some of the locals before our next stop.