Day 13 - Paris here we come

To start today's blog, I will recap on some events of yesterday's tour stage to Hautacam. Simon, and I accepted an invitation from the Latvian aquantance of our guide Sim, and spent the day on top of the mountain. The trip up was something in itself, with 1000's and 1000's making the trip to find a sacred spot of grass to cheer the riders as they sped past. Our tent was 1200m from the finish, had a tv to watch the action, we were treated to French snags, bbq'd vegetables and the company of 4 Brazillians. We got to meet the owner of Tinkoff Saxo, and I was lucky enough to capture a photo with Simon. He looked exceptionally good wearing his lovely cap and glasses. I won't expand more on the race as I'm sure you all know the outcome, and we are hoping that Nibali is cleaner than a past winner Floyd, as his efforts seem un human.

Today we left the wonderful town of Argeles  Gazost, it's wonderful mountains in the Pyrenees, our local pub, le fluers, the hotel beau site and it's French speaking waitress and the soup de jour. we also bid farewell to our newly claimed Aussie Sim. We can only thank him for his guidance, leadership, hard driving turns on the front of the pack, his lovely Bingo and most importantly, his detailed knowledge of France and it's history as he has become one of us over the last 12 days. He did manage though to stitch us all up as he sold us his teams racing kit at full price. Look out back in wagga when we get the CMI GREENOVER train going up the mountains of Gelston Park. We have heard that we get a window of 2 weeks at ultimate fitness from our return from altitude. Farewell Sim until you vist our wonderful town (unless you listen to Chambo) of Wagga x2.

Our train trip to Paris was to depart from Lourdes. As we awaited the arrival of our very fast train, which proved to be not so fast, our team mate "the petite queen" treated us to some amazing card tricks, almost as good as Cosmo himself.

We originally had the best seats on the train, but many people also had our same ticket to these seats. 10 Aussie strong blokes would not be moved, until a lovely lady from Adelaide stepped in and we moved to our shifty "first class" seats in another carriage.

The cards were soon out and into a game of "black b....tch.. There was an early break in the cards game by the light weight climber, only to be caught on the line by the heavy weighted sprinter of the group, the doc.

We arrived in Paris, and after heading up a short cut lane recommended by our plumber Lionel we eventually reached our destination. A great moment was when my sister, Rebecca, raced over to me from across the street to give me a huge hug. I haven't seen here in a long time so I am really looking forward to spending the next few days with her in the great city.

Au Revoir

Hamo