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Final Tour July 22 / Final Tour July 23 / Final Tour July 24 / Final Tour July 25

    We didn't have a hotel reservation last night, which we've done before. Nothing to panic about, because we've had reservations and not found our hotel or got there after it was closed, locked up and the lights off. So after the race we drove towards Lourdes because if we could find a place reasonably close to that area, we should be able to drive close to the final climb or maybe the Aspet or Ares. We were about to give up as the clock passed 11:00pm when Angie spotted a Pizza Restaurant/Hotel. This was not a time to be picky. We pulled in and YES, they had a room. Almost elaborate enough as one on Gilligan's Island, but it had a bed and a bathroom, so it was perfect!

    Got up early, had breakfast (bread and jam) and headed to the route. We hoped to get on the route before they closed the roads. One piece of info not always known and apparently never shared, is the time schedule that the gendarmes close the roads to auto traffic. Wouldn't be a huge problem either way since we could break out the tandem and ride anyway. Our hotel was only an hour from the route, so we were able to jump in before closure. We had driven over the Aspet the day before and noticed it was fairly crowded, so we went further down the route to the small cat 2 Ares climb. Wasn't particularly hard, steep or long, but we found a nice straight semi-steep section 200 meters long with a turn at the end, just right for hanging the LiveStrong banners up. Plenty of time for the riders and cameras to see them.

    As is always the case, as soon as I hoisted the big "Hope Rides Again" banner, people began taking pictures. Walkers stopped and took pictures. Cyclists either stopped or pulled their cameras out and shot as they rode past. A nice couple from Washington (state) stopped to talk to us, Erica & Tory, as they headed towards the summit. We had stopped about 1.5K from the top of the climb. They walked up to the top, then came back where we were and we had a great time visiting the rest of the day. It is always nice to have other people to talk to during the wait for the riders, and they shared their sandwiches!

    One of the LiveStrong cars from the caravan stopped and gave us a case of chalk. Guess we'll give chalk out for the next few days. I wrote a big LIVESTRONG on the road and shared more chalk with some really nice guys from the UK that were promoting a charity that helped returning injured veterans. They were also big Lance fans and extremely complimentary about what an incredible job LiveStrong has done raising cancer awareness on a global scale.

    The riders came by after our typical 3-4 hour wait and although in the middle of a thickly packed peloton, Lance waved and shouted "Thanks Guys!" The Shack team cars always give us some love, honking and waving as they passed our setup. We wrapped up the camp, loaded the car and drove to our next hotel reservation. Looked like we would see our room before the sun sets (yea!), which is around 9:00pm.