Tour de France in Our Town Today

OK, ALMOST DONE with the Tour de France posts -- I know I've been going a bit overboard. But it is exciting when the Tour come within about 50 meters of the house where you are living. Today's stage will roll through our small village of Puivert in the l'Aude region of the Languedoc. Here' the profile (Puivert can be seen at km 27)

I've ridden the first 70 or so km of the stage (up to about the first green S on the chart above) and it's not particularly difficult [Note: I mean for professional cyclists. For me everything was fine until the category 4 climb (the red 4), which made me want to cut my legs off. You should also know, by the way, the a category 4 climb is considered the easiest of all the categoried climbs in the Tour.] But based on the profile this should to be one of the easiest and fastest stages of the Tour with lots of downhill and very few tricky parts. The only thing that could cause problems would be a strong head or cross wind, which is actually quite likely in this part of the Pyrenees foothills.

We'll be standing out on the D117 watching the festivities -- including, of course, the grand caravan that will roll through before the riders arrive. The kids love that!

CJS