Riding and Eating in France: Photos from the Start of Stage 19 of the Tour

I thought about fighting the crowds yesterday to go watch Stage 18 of this year's Tour de France. The stage finished with a climb up Hautacam, which is right across the valley from where I am staying. I ended up watching from the couch. After all, you can see much more of the race on TV.

It turned out to be a pretty exciting stage. Valverde, who started the stage in second place overall, attacked on the descent of the Tourmalet. He was going so fast that the motorcycles were having difficulty keeping up. The finishing climb up Hautacam goes up to a ski resort. The climb itself is very steep (15 kilometers long with grades of up to 13%). Chris Horner was first to attack, but he was quickly followed by the yellow jersey (Nibali, who is the race leader). Nibali caught all of the riders who were up the road and ended up winning the stage. Perhaps the more interesting was the race for second and third place. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r-La Mondiale) followed a move by Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) to put some distance into Alejandro Valverde. Valverde fell to fourth place, but only 15 seconds separate places second through fourth. Stage 20 on Saturday should decide the final podium (top three).

This morning I drove to the start of Stage 19 in Maubourguet with three Australians staying at the hotel next door. Mike knew someone at Orica-GreenEdge, who managed to get us passes to get in the area with all of the team busses. It was actually possible to talk to the riders. This will definitely be one of the highlights of this year's trip to France. Photos and captions below.