Etape Neutralise!
Today was one of the most dramatic stages in the Tour de France for a long time.
So we didn't get caught out by road closures like yesterday, we had a 5am alarm call and went straight to Tignes and missed out the Iseran. Whilst the forecast was for thunderstorms later in the day, it was a beautiful sunrise.
Tignes looked like a marvelous setting for a stsge finish with lakes, dams and a great climb.
To make up for missing the Iseran. The Guv and I decided to do a couple of reps of the Tignes climb.
This gave us plenty of opportunity to identify an ideal viewing point to watch the race and decided on a particularly lively spot next to a bunch of monks and a half tunnel in case the weather forecast of more thunderstorms came true.
After a soaking up the atmosphere and sun for a couple of hours it started to tip it down. So the tunnel came into play and if anything made the atmosphere even better.
But just after the race had crested the Iseran, it was announced that the stage was neutralised due to a massive hailstorm and landslide at the bottom on the Tignes climb.
The decision literally put a dampener on the atmosphere and there were thousand of deflated fans not quite believing the news - that was until people started seeing pictures on their phones...
It was even worse for the French (and me as a Francophile) as Thibout Pinot abandoned and Julian Alaphilippe lost the yellow Jersey to Egan Bernal.
Anyway, such is life and with the Tour, there's always tomorrow. Plus, we had a rather fine meal overlooking the lake and wandered around Tignes checking out the team bikes that were getting a good clean.
Tomorrow is looking like a challenging day with the 33km climb to Val Thorens.
So we didn't get caught out by road closures like yesterday, we had a 5am alarm call and went straight to Tignes and missed out the Iseran. Whilst the forecast was for thunderstorms later in the day, it was a beautiful sunrise.
Tignes looked like a marvelous setting for a stsge finish with lakes, dams and a great climb.
To make up for missing the Iseran. The Guv and I decided to do a couple of reps of the Tignes climb.
This gave us plenty of opportunity to identify an ideal viewing point to watch the race and decided on a particularly lively spot next to a bunch of monks and a half tunnel in case the weather forecast of more thunderstorms came true.
After a soaking up the atmosphere and sun for a couple of hours it started to tip it down. So the tunnel came into play and if anything made the atmosphere even better.
But just after the race had crested the Iseran, it was announced that the stage was neutralised due to a massive hailstorm and landslide at the bottom on the Tignes climb.
The decision literally put a dampener on the atmosphere and there were thousand of deflated fans not quite believing the news - that was until people started seeing pictures on their phones...
It was even worse for the French (and me as a Francophile) as Thibout Pinot abandoned and Julian Alaphilippe lost the yellow Jersey to Egan Bernal.
Anyway, such is life and with the Tour, there's always tomorrow. Plus, we had a rather fine meal overlooking the lake and wandered around Tignes checking out the team bikes that were getting a good clean.
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