July 17

Jerry headed down to the Champs Elysees a little after 7:00am to stake a claim to the spot that we wanted. I followed a little later and found him with several other Americans already there. They were digging out flags to hang and Jerry already our 2 LAF signs up. I went to get breakfast for us (some giant croissant type things) and Jerry spotted a group across the road that we had met two years ago. There was no mistaking them, because they each had a shirt on with a letter so they could spell out “Lance”. This year they had added three other people so now they spelled “Go Lance!” They had four generations from their family and seemed to be having a great time. They are lovely people and I reminded them, and everyone else we met, about the Ride for the Roses in October. We’re hoping to see them there.

More Americans kept showing up in our area. It was funny how many people walked up and asked, “Where’s Angie and Jerry?” We had emailed several people before we left to meet at this spot on the Champs Elysees. One guy said he heard about it from someone in the lobby of his hotel in Paris, so at least the word got out. We had people from Illinois, California, Oregon, Boston, Florida and of course Texas. We even had this really nice couple from Brisbane, Australia that we had met earlier in the mountains. We had taken a load of Tour de Lance shirts with us and I put them out for sale. All of the money goes to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. We sold out immediately. Many people stopped by to talk about the Foundation and tell their own personal cancer stories. I was especially touched by a man from New Zealand that was extremely supportive of the LAF. He said if we ever came to New Zealand, to send him an email and let him know we’re coming and he would take care of us. As we talked, he finally told me his daughter had died of cancer at age 19. He just seemed so appreciative that someone was putting forth an effort to fight cancer.

Angie got us a couple of sandwiches for lunch and got back just as the rain started. Fortunately it didn’t last long and the sun came out and dried up the cobbles of the Champs Elysees. The caravan made its lap around and this time even the semi-tractor trailer trucks that haul the technical equipment and barricades around, joined in. The riders were not far behind. The excitement really builds as you get your first glimpse of the Peloton screaming down the Champs Elysees headed toward you. They slowed and made the 180 degree turn in front of the Arc and picked the speed back up as they passed by. Cameras were clicking like mad as Lance and the US Postal team, in their special retro uniforms of the day, passed by. Le Silver Train? Silver or gray, I don’t know, maybe I’m just used to the blue. The silver really disappears in the Peloton and they are hard to pick out. I bet the sponsors won’t like that once they see it.

After a few laps we made the mistake of trying to be nice and rotate around so some of the people from the back could take some pictures, then we would come back to the front after a few laps. We’ve done this before and had no problems, but a French family sent their small son up to take some pictures. Then they squeezed up toward the front because he was there. After a few laps Angie tried to come back up front with me but the French family wouldn’t let her through. Now keep in mind that I was the first person on the street here this morning at 7:30 and it’s now after 4:00 and these people have only been here an hour. They started rattling off some French blabber and locked arms so Angie couldn’t get through. I wasn’t really trying to be mean, but the intensity and volume when I said, maybe shouted, okay screamed the word “NO!” to them, made them jump back and unlock arms and Angie came through with the help of some of our American friends. The French continued to whisper to each other for a while, but they knew not to force the issue. I shot some more pictures, the race was over and we sang the national anthem with the other Americans around us. There was a special parade this year to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Tour. Dancers, old bikes, flags with pictures of past winners, cars with most of the past living winners and giant balloons. They worked the victory lap into the parade as well. Lance and the Postal team led the group of riders. Lance gave a big wave to our LAF signs, Texas & American flags. We cheered for all the teams as they passed. After seeing and now riding some of the mountains these guys race over, we really have a tremendous respect for all those that finish the Tour. Now it was our turn to battle our last crowd as we tried to get back to our hotel. For some reason the gendarmes wouldn’t open the barricades into the street and the sidewalk was a dead standstill. Of course that didn’t slow down the French from jamming and pushing into the crowd, as if that was going to make it start moving. We finally had enough and open up the barricade in front of the gendarmes. They could only watch as the huge crowd poured into the street, problem solved. We made it back to our hotel and dropped off our signs and caught a cab to the Hard Rock Café. We were meeting other Americans, Lance fans and LAF Peloton Project members there. We had about 20 people from our group make it to the Hard Rock. I must admit, the burger and fries was a nice American touch after some of the meals we’ve struggled through. We had a great time chatting with our new friends. It was finally time to go, so we swapped email addresses and goodbye hugs. We took the Metro train back to our hotel, which was our last mistake of the evening. We made it back to the street our hotel was on, we were just on the wrong end and our energy was about exhausted.