I decide what my body is going to do

Our only American cycling guide is an ex-professional triathalete name Greg from Florida. He practices for the climbs by pushing a 54-11 gear as hard as he can.

The mind is quite powerful and would prefer the body rests. Whenever possible it tries to encourage you to do that. Good when you are on the beach -- not so good when climbing mountains (after mountains after mountains). He told me a saying another former triathelete had said once -- that he decided what his body was going to do -- not the other way around.

Two days ago I missed a post. We got back to hotel at 8:15, dinner was at 8:30 and at 9:30 a few of us when to the local spa -- it was awesome and my body definitely needed it. These are tough tough climbs. Tried to post the next morning but couldn't get an internet connection.

Yesterday we climbed 2 cols. The final was on the race course and was a blast. But in Andorra you do one of 2 things -- climb or descend. There is no warm up, no place to rest or recover -- just climbs.

The climbs we do off of the race course are great as they are back roads with little traffic. The race route is not closed yet when we go through so tons of cars, the last minute campers, people painting (best to do in pairs, one spray paints the name/saying while the other goes behind with a 4" roller and spreads it out -- works quite well) or chalking (livestrong is handing out boxes of chalk along the route!), and basically just walking about. So you have to watch yourself a bit but they are quite respectful and stay out of your way or actually someone on the road yells at them!

And those last few k's when your mind is telling the body to stop -- they are quite helpful. They are having a blast and are very happy and joyful (or drunk I'm not sure) and they cheer (Allez in French, Venga in Spanish, I'm not sure what in Catalayan but I think they were saying Go!) and clap and especially seem to like seeing the female climbers as we tend to get a bit more reaction. Not too many of us out here -- but there are tons of folks trying their hand at the climbs.

The altitude is a bit lower then Colorado so no trouble there. We get to the top, change into civies, eat and drink then scope out places to watch people and the race. And it is so beautiful. The connection is a bit too slow to post pictures I'm afraid -- plus I need to get ready to go ride in a bit.

The first sign of the race is always the helicopter -- they must be amazing pilots as they fly so low and in an around this terrain, with electric lines, thermals and etc. Then you start hearing the roar of the crowd. Then the cars -- the cars seem to be constant both in front of and behind the riders.

And then you see the breakaway. And I have to wonder if they are climbing the same climb I just did -- these guys are absolutely amazing. The speeds that they can climb these mountains -- there were sections of 10% that didn't seem to even faze them -- they are truly amazing athletes.

From our vantage point we were able to see the front couple of groups wind up the mountain, then we ran through a field, passed some of the parked cars, to catch them on the descent. They were just starting so not picking up too much speed yet but Yikes. We descended the same road an hour later (but we had tons of cars in our way) and in places it was quite narrow. Plus twists and turns and more than a few hairpins -- it's amazing to think how quickly they did that. Nerves of steel.

We then slipped over to the banner showing the KOM points and got to watch the groupetta climb up. These are the sprinters or roleurs that aren't pure climbers. This climb was quite early in the ride for them so the groups should have been relatively close together. But there were some significant gaps and we could relate to these guys a bit more -- especially the ones and twos that crawled over the line. And the poor guy that was alone and last -- right behind him is a small bus with a sign on the front -- Fini du Course - how would you like that following you around! I'm not sure how or if he finished, or if he finished in the time limit -- but I know he had a long and lonely day in front of him. I'm not sure if he was close enough to the previous few to catch them on the descent or if they would wait up a bit for him. But he probably had 100 miles left to cover -- with no teammates, noone to help draft or block the wind. A long day indeed.

We are in Luchon. It is just beautiful, another ski area. The town looks really neat and there were tons of people out. Never sure how many are locals, how many are visiting for the Tour but i think it would be a great place to live. We don't take many highways -- mostly small 2 lane roads -- and we get to go through some great villages. The only down point to being in someplace neat like Luchon is we got in at 8:30 at night, went out to dinner, got back to hotel at 11. Tonight we need to pack our bikes up (most chose the rental option so they'll have a bit more time) and pack so not sure if we'll get to walk around. So I may slip out and take some photos now.

I definitely won't be eating breakfast. I know better but yesterday I went in and had some scrambled eggs. My body doesn't do well riding so soon after eating so I struggled starting out. Today is by far the hardest day -- which is hard to believe as they've all been so hard. But our guide Geull said the Tourmalet will be quite harder than the others. So I will definitely need to decide what my body is going to do!

If you watch the tour -- we're climbing the Aspin and Tourmalet on the route, the Perysourde off the route. Those will be the first 2 climbs they do.

Have to run and get ready. Wish me luck!