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Thursday, July 22 - Stage 17

   We got to sleep in late this morning because our hotel was right on the Tour route, 11K up the Col de la Madeleine, GREAT! We had a late breakfast of croissants, nutella (chocolate), jam and juice. Jerry checked us out and bought some sandwiches and water while I got ready.

   We walked, maybe 100 yards from the hotel, pulling our rolling cooler with our food and all of our LAF signs to the same spot we had been 2 years before. It was a nice steep section of road, in the shade - perfect! Jerry did his best lumberjack impression as he cut down a bunch of small trees to hang our signs on. We were pretty much alone in this section, so we put up 3 big LAF banners, a big LiveStrong banner and American and Texas flags. Not long after we setup a Postal team car came buzzing passed. He hit the brakes when he saw all the LAF signs and backed up. It was Mark Higgins. He chatted a while then he took off so he could get to the finish before the riders arrived.

    There was no way the riders would miss us with all of our signs up. It's no problem to get Floyd, George or the other guys to look at us or even speak, but Lance stays so focused he rarely glances away from the road, so the ultimate 'fun' challenge is getting the King of Focus to give us a look.

   It wasn't long before the caravan passed by, throwing us useless trinkets and some good treats, like au pain chocolat and sample bags of coffee. The Aquarel guy with the water hose drenched me, but I didn't need it today because it wasn't hot. Where was he yesterday as we were roasting on l'Alpe d'Huez? The people in the caravan continued to wave their yellow bands at us when they passed and see all of our LAF signage.

   The first riders passed by in two small groups. Richard Virenque and Christophe Moreau were after some King of the Mountain points. The peloton came up the hill a couple of minutes later with US Postal on the front. Jerry was yelling and taking pictures while I cheered! Most of the guys looked over at us will all the LAF/LiveStrong signs and then Lance looked right at me and gave a bid nod! I couldn't believe it. He's always so focused and looks straight ahead, so this was a fantastic surprise. Jerry got a great picture of him, so we packed up and headed back to the car. 

   We talked about going to the finish tomorrow, but I so hate being crushed against the barricades that I talked Jerry into stopping somewhere else. We didn't have a hotel room, so we stopped at this really cute Chateau on the side of the last big climb of the Tour. We were both surprised that they had a room! And it was a big room, with a bathroom and a shower in the room! The lady that showed us the room was laughing at us, because we get so excited when we have a bathroom and shower in the room instead of down the hall. They even had EuroSport on TV, so we were able to watch the end of today's stage. They kept replaying the finish because Lance sprinted and beat Kloden for the stage win! It was awesome!!

   We celebrated our good day with a panache on the back terrace of the hotel. The view was amazing off the mountain and across the valley. We also had a really fantastic meal in the restaurant. I had the duck and Jerry had the veal. They were both in a great sauce with veggies and then dessert comes with the meal, as always. At the table next to us, we met Dennis, and American from Alaska and also a cancer survivor. He had been traveling around following the Tour.

   We went back to the room to watch the replay of todays stage and download some pictures to send to CB at thepaceline.com. This was a fun day! Certainly made up for the crushfest on l'Alpe d'Huez!