The Tourmalet
What a difference a day makes! Two days ago it was sweltering hot on the Tourmalet. Today it was 10 degrees celsius 4k down from the top. It was pouring all through the night and most of the day. It let up when the race came through.
Early on there was a break with Boasson Hagen, Flecha, Koren, Burghardt, Perez Moreno, Pauriol and Kolobnev. Sanchez crashed at 23k and took some time to get back up and on his bike. Sastre tried to attack but didn’t get far.
Contador and Schleck finally attacked at 10.5k to go. They played cat and mouse all the way up the mountain. Schleck won the stage.
Armstrong came up 17th, about 4 minutes behind the leaders.
The press had to take a chair lift to get to the top of the mountain. None of our cars were allowed. The fog rolled back in and it was raining on the way up, freezing on the way down. It took 25 minutes each way.
