PEZ Roadside Stage 11: It’s my last day on the Tour. So much finality and it’s only stage 11 …. another bullet in the corpse of doping as one of the Barloworld boys gets the boot, one of the good guys finally gets a stage win and I drive my final stage route of the year on some truly breathtaking roads…


I trekked into Lannemezan for the stage start and a final trawl round the Village Depart. I made a nuisance of myself at the Skoda tent, and snaffled some coffee from the Tour organisers tent. It was the busiest day yet – if you can count busy by the number of people who stop dead in front of you when you’re trying to go somewhere.



The stilt walking girls were in good form again, picking competition winners from a sheaf of papers. They deserve to win something themselves for teetering around above the fans – it’s hard work putting your faith in a couple of square inches of stilt when you’re wobbling about on a dodgy town center car park surface.



Spotting a bonny blue and white saltire, I went over to chat to Andy and Wendy, both from Glasgow, and finishing off a biking holiday round France. “We’ve seen a stage finish, been on the Hautacam and now we’re at a start … so that’s pretty good,” said Andy. Wendy reckoned climbing through the Pyrenees gives you a real feeling for what the pro peloton are going through. “It’s not only the climbing … on the descent from Hautacam, these guys were going screaming past me down to the buses. Incredible athletes to do that after 5 hours in the saddle.” They’re off home today, so I wished them well.

I bumped into one of the guys from British broadcaster ITV, looking a bit downcast. “Barloworld have had a guy kicked out ….” Just the news we needed.



I’d arranged to grab five minutes with Scott Sunderland, so I quickly rejigged my questions in light of the new fiasco. I got five minutes of informative insights, as ever from the CSC directeur sportif, once he’d finished discussing the day with the team. Must have been a good team talk!



How hard will it be to keep the guys focussed on the job with the doping stories going around. “It’s no problem at all. For us, it’s more rubbish getting cleaned out of the peloton. The testing is working and it’s catching people. To the guys on the bus, it’s like a ‘happy birthday’ that these guys are getting caught.”

I left Scott surrounded by Danish journalists and bolted for the car. On a hot, short stage like this, I’ve learn’t that you need every minute you can get to outrun the peloton! When they’re charging at 45km/h and you’re stuck behind the publicity caravan at 40km/h … things can get cut pretty fine.



The countryside around here is fabulous. By halfway, it’s roasting. The first climb of the day, the Larrieu, is just one more beauty. It writhes and wriggles up through hairpins, before tumbling off the other side. The view from the top of the Larrieu was worth risking my place in the line for! There are a couple of cliff-face steep pitches near the bottom – not too easy to careen the hire car round in fourth gear!

Beautiful wooded slopes, manicured fields, corn being harvested – we’re cheating on the Hautes-Pyrenees with the Haute-Garonne before running back again. They’re both gorgeous.



The Larrieu was a third cat climb, but PEZ had wanted me to check out the 12.2.km Portel Pass at km110. It’s got a nasty reputation, and that’s justified. The road is really narrow with no space to pass. Spectators’ cars look like they’ve been abandoned after being used in a robbery getaway! Because the cars are taking up the verges, the fans are sitting on the road … not good for the nerves.



The caravan has been restricted on this hill – that’s how nasty it is. Anything over 10 metres long or too heavy gets detoured.



The kilometre markers let the riders know what they’ve got to face: the averages are 9.1%, 8.7%, 9.2%, but with ferocious sections. I see a hut and some cars balanced on the precipice about 200 feet above me. It was only when I hit the next hairpin that I realised just how bloody steep the road is because they jump into view as soon as I take the corner.



Because of the trees casting shadows you’re going from light to dark to light, and it’s hard to see where the road’s edge is. I’ve got a Milram team van closing fast. Any closer and they could pickpocket me.



I cajole the car to the top where it flattens and the road widens, and grab a breather on the roadside The view down to the valley and across to the Pyrenees – still dusted by snow – is incredible. The descent is a long ribbon with the occasional knot thrown in.



It’s beautiful, and I’m still in awe as we flirt round Foix and off again swooshing up the final climb before everything comes to a grinding halt with 10kms to go. If it was a drag race between us and the pros, we’d be outside the time limit.



I ditch the car and hit the finish line seconds after Kurt-Asle Arvesen snares his first ever Tour stage. People seem happy … Arvesen’s a class act on and off the bike and deserves a big moment. He looks ecstatic on the podium. At 33, a stage win here guarantees him a contract as long as he needs one.



The podium presentations are run to their usual choreographed precision until Cofidis rider Amael Moinard wins the combativity prize. He’s obviously not too practiced up there – he goes the wrong way and takes the wrong steps but no-one minds.

Once the podium girls have wafted gracefully out of reach, I head into the video interview room to check out the press conferences and get a quick look at all the mind-blowing technical gubbins that sits in massive quantities just a couple of feet behind those pretty logos.



Cadel Evans looks pretty relaxed as he takes his seat but takes only three questions before escaping.



Arvesen answers a few more. I ask what a win for him and his team means on a day like this. “Of course, I’m sorry to hear what’s happened, but it really isn’t our problem. We have a different way of doing things here. To win a Tour stage in my national champion’s jersey …. that’s the best thing I’ve done in my career.”



That’s a pretty good sentiment to round things up on. I’m on my way to Toulouse for a flight out of the tour bubble and back to bonny Scotland. It’s been a blast, but the adventures will be Ed’s from now on. Keep it dialled to Pez to see how he gets on.


Au revoir, and thanks for joining me – !
Gord