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Julian Dean Diary
By Carole Dean
Jul 23, 2004, 23:54
Tour de France - Stage 18
Hi all,
Carole here...Julz is feeling pretty fisted these days and apart from getting a wee behind in his diary updates, he's also had some trouble getting online in some of the dodgy hotels the team has been staying at.
I thought I had better just write a teeny tiny bit just to let you know that neither of us have forgotten about you all. In fact, Julz said to me after Alp d'Huez that he was feeling guilty for not keeping you all up to date lately.... He's been so buggered after the stages and they've had some pretty lengthy transitions to hotels that it has been hard for him to find the time.
Anyway, he is only 2 stages away from completing his debut Tour De France and he is feeling pretty amped about that. The last few stages in the mountains have scared the shit out of him but thankfully he has enough mongrel in him that he managed to get through them without too many dramas. In fact, at the top of yesterday's final climb, he even had the morale to accept a bottle of beer from a fan and stop at the top to chat to a couple of friends who had come out to cheer for him.... Very cool!
He loved the atmosphere up Alp d'Huez and was bummed he wasn't able to noodle up the climb so he could enjoy the buzz of the fans. Unfortunately he had to work pretty hard to make the time cut so although he was able to take in a bit of the euphoria, he wanted more!
And what about Lance!!!! That dude made Alp d'Huez look flat...I was standing at one of the steepest points of the climbs and he whizzed past us like a robber's dog! No-one can deny that he is a living legend.
Anyway, as for me and my TDF traveling companions, we're buggered too. It's actually bloody hard work following this race. It's been a logistical nightmare from time to time, making up our itinerary as we go and on the night before Alp d'Huez, the 3 of us slept on the tarmac of a supermarket carpark (which was chocked with campervans, cars, tents, etc), and were kept awake by the humming of a refrigeration truck and the stench of the smelly fish remains in the bins beside us! We were right on the course though so we thought we had a pretty primo spot really. I saw a couple of Kiwis wandering through the carpark the following morning and they couldn't believe a wife of a Tour de France rider was sleeping on a supermarket carpark! I've slept in worse places during Julian's and my intrepid journeys so I actually wasn't bothered by it at all...Besides, that's the sort of stuff you do when you are one of a million people making the annual pilgrimage to Alp d'Huez!
Anyway, I will bugger off now and Julz will update you all as soon as he can...
Hope you've enjoyed this Tour as much as I have and let's hope it's just the beginning!
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