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Sorry guys. I was just way too short of time to keep you all updated during the Tour. I think that most of you ended up at the Tour anyway…Sure seemed like all of NZ was on the sides of the roads! It was hard to keep you all updated because we had such long days on the bike and getting to the hotel with the traffic congestion was crazy. Some days we spent 7hrs on the bike and then had to drive 30km to the hotel, which would take an hour due to traffic. One day, after Plateau de Belle, we even took the bikes off the car roof and rode to the hotel for the last 10km. I was absolutely smashed from the stage but just wanted to get to my room for the night. What an awesome few days in the Pyrenees and then in the Alps with the ITT up Alpe d’Huez…The stage in the Pyrenees to Plateau de Beille was something I’ll never forget. Iban Mayo was in the same groupeto as me and all the crazy Basque fans just kept cheering him on. It made me think about cycling and how hard it is at times - especially when you’re having a bad day - but what it also means to the fans. Iban was way out the arse but he was still their hero. It didn’t matter that we was 30min down on the race winner, Ivan Basso. He rode in the middle of the group, with his head down, hat on and dark glasses, trying to hide. Obviously he felt like he had let his thousands of fans down, who had come to see him push his rivals to their limits, exceeding theirs and his own. The beautiful thing was that they understood. They understood how cycling can bring on a bad day out of nowhere and ruin everything you had worked so hard for. For those fans out there for him, it didn’t matter. They knew that their man was a great champion. Maybe not on this day but on 99% of the other days, he would be the best. To see him and to feel him was more than enough for them. The first mountain stage to la Moise, when Basso won, was another experience. I felt like I belonged to a troop in an army of soldiers, being lead into the battle at the frontline by USPS with Lance giving the orders like a General. It was like we were an unstoppable force, marching at tempo. Not going real hard but forcing it a little. We had to get to the frontline and prepare for the battle so the forward moving pass was solid. You could sense that there was something big lying ahead as the General spent all day behind his 8 Lieutenants, heading the charge. The shit was going to go down and we could all feel it. I think that at this moment, Lance’s rivals were already beginning to feel their fear and many of them were already beaten before we got to the first of the mountains. The feeling in air within in the peloton was nothing that I had ever felt before. Armstrong was on a mission and this time it wasn’t about going to the moon. He wanted to be the first, the first to six consecutive TDF victories and on this day everyone could feel that nothing was going to stop him... With the After the stage, we had to fulfill our TV commitments with an appearance on the French show, ‘Velo Club’ and so was late back to the hotel. Luckily the T.V fella didn’t ask me any questions…Don’t reckon my French would’ve been up to scratch. The rest day in The return to racing after a rest day is always hard but entering into the After the race, it was nice to be at the hotel at the top and watch the rest of the race on TV as the dozen or so helicopters flew up and down the mountain - and just hoping that LA didn’t eliminate me. I was pretty sure I was going to be ok…And I was. Also on my mind was the next day’s stage. It was the king day and with a 20km climb 10km out of the starting blocks, it was going to be a big effort to find a group and ride to the finish inside the time-cut. As hard as it was, the hardest day of the Tour de France was one of the ones that I enjoyed the most. The goal was to get through it by finding a good group and riding to the finish. Over the first climb, Col de Glandon, it was pretty controlled. With a small group breaking away in the early kilometers, the peloton just rode steady up to the 1900m summit. After the descent and on the start of the Col de Madeleine, I managed to go back to the car and get my team-mates some bottles before I waved good-bye to them and wished them luck on the epic day. As I drifted back, I looked behind to see a group of 30 plus riders starting to form. Nice!! This was it - these were going to be my comrades for the day. We would ride our own pace up the climbs, bomb the descents and tempo our way through the valleys in between. A perfect formula for making the time-cut – the only thing we needed to achieve. As it turned out, I enjoyed the ride, the people and the atmosphere. People had no problem waiting the extra 30min for us to come by. And when we did, the enthusiasm they showed was still intensely insane. Maybe even more so because we were able to give them attention as we rolled up within our limits, taking in the surroundings. On the last climb, I rode ahead of the groupeto (or ‘group echo’ as it has been referred to by some????) to stop for a moment to see Carole and our friends, who had told me they were on the last climb. At the bottom of the 12km climb, I pressed ahead hoping that they were just around the corner. ‘No…maybe the next one? Nah…well maybe they are half way – I’ll just keep riding a little harder to stay ahead of the group and then I’ll be able to stop for a bit longer. Nah…they aren’t in the first half. Oh well, I’ve come this far so I’ll keep going’, even though by now I was getting a little frustrated. With 3km to the top, I started to swear to myself. Never mind though, I was still having a good time. People were fizzing I was on my own and getting all the attention was kinda cool. I was also getting all the pushes which was a good thing. Something you don’t get in a group. At the 1km to go, I was at the point where I felt that if I saw them now, I would ride straight past them. With 500m left, I had given up hope. As if as a consolation prize, some joker on the roadside offered me a beer as I rode past so in good sporting nature, I took it and had a swig. 200m later, out of the crowd, jumped a couple of other mates, Cookie and Mary-Anne. Not who I had expected to see but pleased all the same and I was stoked to have been able to offer Cookie a nice cold beer. As soon as I stopped and flicked Cookie the beer, we were surrounded by people with cameras clicking all over the show. People were just fizzing. I guess it’s not that often a rider stops in the middle of a stage for a chat with friends! I waited for my group to catch up, said my good-byes and carried on. Never did get to see Carole and co. Oh well, the idea was nice. The road had been closed before they were able to get up so were on the descent instead. Anyway it was only a few kms to go and I was pleased that I had passed the day. The last proper road stage was open slather from the start. It was everyone’s last chance to get in a break and try for a stage win. I wasn’t good at the start, in the drizzling rain, and was unable to get in to any moves that were of any use. After the break had gone and Lance pulled his stunt by chasing down Simeoni, everything settled down and we rode steadily to the finish. The ITT was next up the following day... Lance stamped his authority and scared everybody once again, in this hard time-trial. After doing mine in the rain, again I sat back in the hotel watching the big-hitters on tv. The night before, I had sat down and calculated a time schedule I needed to stick to in order to make the time-cut. I had decided to base it on Lance hammering out a 55km/hr effort - one I thought would be impossible and therefore making my schedule a very safe bet. When I saw Lance take 43sec out of Ullrich in the first 10km of the race, I had a wee scare and had to get out the calculator on my cellphone and check that if he kept up that pace, I wouldn’t be out of the time-cut. If he had I think that I would’ve been out but thankfully it was sweet. He stayed even the rest of the stage and I was well inside the limit. Turned out that my schedule was perfectly executed! And that final effort brought me to the last day of the Tour de France. It was a great day for the peloton to relax a little; give Lance and the Posties congrats for an impeccable performance; talk shit about what we are going to do after the season; try to hook up new contracts and of course, gossip - as only bikers know how. And for me, well I was able to reflect a little. As we all commended each other on the various performances, I was dropped back into reality a little when a couple of my peers commented to me how amazing it was that I had made it through the Tour after coming back from two broken elbows, 8 weeks earlier. And I know now that they are right. Sometimes it takes some reminding of where you have come from and how hard you have worked to get there. For me, this was what the ride to the As we turned onto the finishing circuits of the Crossing the finish line, I was a little bummed that I didn’t do better in the sprint. I was feeling good on this final day of the Tour de France and hoped for something great but it didn’t happen. I quickly got over my disappointment. We had all come a long way to get to Julz Please take our reader survey if you visit Roadcycling.com on a regular basis. Thank you. Are you interested in light, cool cycling headgear? If the answer to this question is yes, check out Headsweats. 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