July 13

We got up early to head down to the Champs. I had dumped all of my clothes out of my suitcase so I could fill it up with yellow Lance Fans to pass out on the street. We had 10,000 to pass out, but we knew they wouldn't last long once people saw them. We walked down to the Champs and found our spot on the street.

We immediately went in search of some barricades so we could box ourselves in and create a private viewing area. There are no official private areas except for the grandstands which are VIP seating, and quite pricey. We just build ours before the gendarmes gather around and after we put our banners up around it, people think it's official, so nobody will come in without asking. We soon had a small crowd of Americans, that we had emailed weeks or months before, that met us. Several people we had met before were there and there were others from an online cancer support group that I'm in called Cyclists Combating Cancer. We were all setup by 7:00am and the riders wouldn't be in until about 4:30pm, so we had time to visit and to pass out the Lance Fans. By 10:30 the fans were gone. We had lots of help with the fans from Nick Felix from South Carolina and Lisa Burros from the Fat Tire Bike Tours. We met Nick last year when he was at the Tour with his dad and his son, Jack. Jack celebrated his birthday on the l'Alpe d'Huez time trial. We've stayed in touch through the year and although Jack wasn't able to come this year, his mom, Lindy did. They brought Jacks signs that he had last year so Nick took a picture of his sign with our whole group. I think we had seven cancer survivors in our group also. Several LAF staff came later and brought us several thousand more fans to pass out, but they went quicker than the first bunch. Several people stopped at our section wanting to buy wristbands. I explained that they could buy them online. I had several more requests from people that wanted to buy our signs. I guess people were just looking for any type of Lance souvenir. Maybe the craziest request I've had in five years of following the Tour de France was when a young man stopped and asked me to sign a yellow jersey for him. "Are you kidding?" was my question, but he wasn't. He wanted someone representing the Lance Armstrong Foundation to sign it, so I did. One of our best friends, Chris Brewer made it through the crowds and into our little LAF camp. "One day the gendarmes are going to figure out who you are building these private boxes, and you're gonna be outa here!" We were really glad the CB got to finally cover the Tour from start to finish in France. He's done an incredible job over the past years of maintaining Lance's website, but beyond that he's a great friend that we just don't get to spend enough time with.

The drizzling rain finally subsided and the riders were on us. Lance was leading the entire peloton as they rounded the turn in front of the Arc - Very cool and exciting!

The riders make several laps, seven I think, around the Champs, so we get to see them and have a chance to take a few pictures. After a few laps, people always lose count, then can't decide how many laps they are supposed to do, so we just wait until there is a gap longer than about 10 minutes and we know they are done. We're too far down to see the podium, but all of the teams ride a lap of honor, which they well deserve for just finishing the Tour. The teams always stop in front of the Arc to take pictures, so we cheer for everybody and they all seem to appreciate it.

Another Tour de France over for us, our fifth in a row. It seems like they passed so fast, but I think of what Angie said just about an hour ago, "I wonder where we would be right now if you had never been diagnosed?" I don't know, but I know we wouldn't be in France; we wouldn't have raised so much money to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation & LiveSTRONG; wouldn't have gone to Washington DC to ask politicians for funding for cancer support; wouldn't have met an incredible group of cancer survivors, Lance included, that inspire our lives daily; wouldn't have done a lot of things that hopefully will help cancer survivors and eventually help eliminate cancer AND we wouldn't have had such fun chasing and supporting a cancer survivor around France! We hope you've enjoyed our journals over the past few years. Now we just have to figure out what to do for vacation next year........

LiveSTRONG

Jerry & Angie