Day 12 - Tour day in Argeles Gazost

After every good ride we end the day with a few beers at the friendly local "les fleurs". We all knew it would be a good night when a local band started setting up so we commandeered a table front and centre and took turns going for a wash so we didn't loose it.  At the risk of upsetting a few people we even chose to forgo our meal at Hotel Beau Site to stay for a traditional Lamb BBQ put on by the locals. The lamb was delicious, freshly season on the mountain the day before with the salt from Dans legs.

The band really fired up after dinner. When they launched into a classic Chuck Berry number the boys soon forgot about their texting to watch what turned out to be the highlight of the evening. In true Aussie style we became the centre of the crowds attention. Bryce, obviously still suffering from the delusional state that he was in when he rode up the Tormalet yesterday thinking he carried food and drinks for everyone, tonight was convinced he also had a guitar. This of course turned out to just be one of the legs he used on the Tormalet, and again it failed him. His subsequent sudden cramp caused him to crash into the speaker stack sending it over. Only the super Cazaly like effort of Simon saved the evening as he quickly dropped his own leg Guitar to launch himself and catch the falling equipment. The crowd were in a frenzy. The band resumed and immediately launched in to a couple of ACDC numbers. Not sure weather it was to shut us up or fire us up, but the pub then shouted our next round of beers, they went down a treat. After getting the band to play a few more songs than they were suppose to, they finally packed up. However the night was not over, it was only midnight. As they do in France, it was time for the accordion band. Many of the boys had called it a night only to lay in bed trying to go to sleep to the familiar, almost professional voices of a few of our late stayers singing waltzing Matilda and murdering our national anthem, the sound booming across the whole town.

The next morning with not much sleep and a few sore heads we got ready for our last big ride of the trip. Seven of us decided to tackle our last HC climb and the final climb of today's tour stage, Hauticam. A tough ride of over 13 km at 9-10%. Once we got to the top it was time to descend which proved to be difficult as the crowd were already there in the hundreds of thousands and still pouring in by the minute. It proved to be worth the effort for everyone to see Nibali put more time into his opposition. It was a good day for Wagga to. Thanks to Hammos efforts at sign writing, WAGGA was seen clearly a number of times as the peloton crossed the top of the Tormalet. "Everyready" Hammo and "soft shoes" Simon also made the effort to stay up on Hauticam 1km from the finish and were seen by the world as the riders passed by.

In true Aussie style, we sat at our local watching the events unfold on TV and had a few beers. Dan made the short ride down to watch the peloton pass by and battle the millions of people who turned out on this perfect day. As I write this it would seem that the tour is now a foregone conclusion with Nibali opening up a 7min lead. Hammo and Simon aren't expected down off the mountain for hours and they will no don't have stories to tell in tomorrow's blog. We ready ourselves now for our trip to Paris on the TGV fast train and the odd game of cards at 300kmh. It has been a great trip. Watch out Paris here we come.

Lionel.