We’re off to see the wizard
Yesterday after my stint (stunt) in the publicity caravan we went to our second stop in our trip. We landed in OZ station. Because of the massive traffic jams some of our guests did not arrive here till extremely late last night. That was tough for some to say the least especially given the fact that they had a really hard ride before hand. We did a few hard parts of stage 15 (Valreas to Villard de Lans).
Since yesterdays ride was tough and tomorrow’s will be even harder, all guests were on their own for rides etc. Many opted to do a short walk/hike near here. I heard that was tough too.
Because I forgot to fuel out cars for yesterdays ride I started our ride with only slightly more than a half of a tank of gas, I did not want to make that mistake again. I was sweating bullets looking for a gas station AND trying to provide support for out guests yesterday. So Tony, Amy, Dave, Gert and I tried to go get gas for the 5 vehicles after lunch to find the ONLY gas station closed (to be open from 2 to 7). Kind of a stickler as we were to watch the Alp D’Huez TT and then try to go get gas. Our goal was to watch the race and then immediately after Lance finished we were to bolt back to our hotel, get the cars and to get to the gas station ASAP before it closed.
Fortunately we had a kick ass logistics. From OZ we had lift passes to Alp D’Huez and back, then we had a private balcony to watch the race live. We had a few TVs too so that made the viewing more fun. I think the open bar was the best part but that is just my opinion. OK, actually the coolest part was that we were at the 500 meter to go point. Some flew by and some were obviously just getting by. Robbie McEwen was obviously trying his best to soft pedal as he also waved at a few fans.
Cars are gases. WHEW!ßAfter dinner we sorted bikes into the two ride groups and pumped tires. It was going to be a super early morning. We even racked one van with 10 bikes on top and locked them to save that 15 minutes the next morning. I packed my luggage and set out my days clothing. We were ALL doing everything we could tonight so we could sleep in as close to departure time as we could.