Another great day at the Tour de France! The pencil reference is about stuff they toss out to spectators lining the roads. You have to be there to understand. It’s ok. I get it.

Not mentioned in the Facebook posts below is Kevin and I running into Nigel, a riding partner from some years ago, who used to live in our area but has now moved to southern France (Bedoin). Nigel caught up to us and Kevin, who’d been riding with me up the hill, got into a conversation with Nigel and just kind of rode on ahead, forgetting I was there for a while. The two had a lot of catching up to do; this was a good thing. It was also kind of funny, and sad, that Kevin’s normal speed is so high compared to mine that, if he’s distracted, he can drop me like a rock!

Nevertheless, this was  a great day, with a lot of things that could have gone wrong, but didn’t. Post-race train connections that required everything to work out just right, including me not being exhausted after the climbs… and we got to the train with almost an hour to spare!