Fangirl at Le Tour 2:Bourg Saint Maurice-Grand Bornard

The day after the Col du Petit Saint Bernard stage,Ilaria,Kimberley,Marleen,my family and I drove to Bourg-Saint-Maurice,France,to see the start of the Grand Bornard stage.
There were lots of people around and we were a bit confused because we didn't know where to go.We saw some Rabobank's cars at the petrol station (in the pic you can see Menchov's and Garate's bikes) but that didn't help us.Finally we saw some buses (and some indications) and managed to find the "bus area" and the start zone.
Some people were queueing to go inside the start village,but you had to pay to get there and so we avoided it.Later,we found out that buses weren't close to supporters like in the Giro: there were barriers and then,behind the barriers (where journalists,photographers and people-who-had-paid could wander without any problem) there were the team buses.
Saxo Bank bus was one of the last buses to arrive and parked very far from us.When SB bus rode past her,Fangirl was really happy because she could see Fab Fab very well:he was sat near to the bus driver and was already wearing his uniform and his sunglasses.When the bus had parked,lots of journalists,photographers and cameramen went there,so it became impossible to take good pics of the riders.
In the meanwhile,some riders started to ride to the start.I saw Charly Wegelius,looking cool and wearing his looking glasses,Sebastian Lang,Matthew Lloyd,Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Johan Van Summeren.Random thought? "Man,Van Summeren's skinnier than Brice Feillu! And he's taller!!! Unbelievable!!!". Talking about Silence-Lotto's riders,I saw also Scheirlincx (and they say that "Schleck" is difficult to write...) and Van Avermaet.
Then the Euskaltel boys came.Fortunately I had printed the start list of the race and I had brought that sheet of paper with me,so I could recognise the riders by looking at their race number.
The other riders arrived in a pretty random way:a Boygues Telecom rider,a Caisse d'Epargne's one,a Milram guy...I saw Fabian Wegmann pretty well,he rode in front of me,alone,looking relaxed.Another Milram rider I saw very well was Linus Gerdemann.He rode near me without helmet and guess what my mother said? "That boy has nice hair.He looks a bit like Lovkvist".
Then I saw Vladimir Karpets (he's not that scary now that he has abandoned his victory mullet) and Brice Feillu.Brice seems a very nice boy,French supporters screamed his name in a great way and he smiled at them.
Then I saw Ballan (he's very skinny as well),Pellizotti (go Francoooo!!!),Fedrigo,Nocentini,Nibali and lots of other riders.Of course I saw also HGS,but I pretended to be a French supporter when he rode past me.
Then the 2 Japanese riders arrived:Arashiro was talking to a Japanese girl and seemed relaxed. Beppu instead was on his pedals and was riding pretty fast.In the meanwhile things around Saxo Bank bus had started to change:in fact the mechanics had brought the bikes near to the vehicle and Bjarne Riis had appeared.When Bjarne went away,the brave Nicki Sorensen got off the bus and faced the journalists.Fangirl wanted to scream something,but then Logic reminded her that Nicki was being interviewed and that he wouldn't have heard her anyway.And,if he had heard her,he would have thought that Fangirl was crazy.Fangirl agreed with Logic and didn't scream anything.
After some time I heard a lot of people screaming and 2 men dressed in black came running in front of me.Sir Lancelot was following them and riding between the shouting supporters. I didn't say nothing to Armstrong,but I couldn't avoid to scream "Go Denis!" to Menchov. After all,in the Di Luca-Menchov battle during the Giro,I was supporting the Russian (instead a Lovkvist fangirl that I know very well was supporting Di Luca).
Then Vanotti rode past my family.One of us said: "Ciao Alessandro!" and he turned his head towards us and said "Ciao" as well.After that,he probably thought a lot about who we were.
Another rider who payed attention to us was Evans.Yes,Cadel Evans.He was riding in front of me,all alone,when someone of my family screamed "Evans!!!".I didn't believe he would have paid any attention to us,but instead he watched us,smiled and waved his hand.Fangirl an Logic were both surprised."Isn't he the 'I'm going to cut your head off" guy?'",Fangirl asked,but Logic was too surprised to answer that question.Since that moment,I must say that I find Evans nicer.
After some minutes spent talking to the journalists,Nicki Sorensen got on the bus again and left the ground to the other Sorensen,Chris-Anker.Fangirl was soooo happy! I could see him pretty well while he gave interviews to 4 different journalists.It was pretty funny to see him moving from right to left, talking to 4 different groups of journalists.I think that those journalists weren't all from the same country,so the riders had to say the same thing to everyone in 4 different languages.Pretty boring thing,I guess.
I was distracted from Saxo Bank's bus by Contador's arrive.He was already on his pedals and looked very determined.After Contador,some other riders (Hincapie,Monfort,Flecha,Freire,Vande Velde,Farrar and other ones I don't remember right now) arrived.
In the meanwhile Chris-Anker Sorensen had ended his little tour between the journalists and finally,after los Sorensens,one of the Schlecks got off the bus.It was Frank,already wearing sunglasses.Of course,Fangirl focused on him for some minutes.
While Frank was talking to the journalists,los Sorensens rode towards the start.After some minutes O'Grady and Cancellara followed them.
When Fangirl focused again on Saxo Bank bus,she noticed that Frank had disappeared and that Andy had finally got off the bus.Little Bro' was wearing the white jersey and,when the supporters near me called him,he watched towards us and smiled.Cuteeee! Fangirl was incredibly happy,and so was Logic.
The last Saxo Bank rider to ride towards the start was Larsson.He looked happy and said something to the mechanic,then laughed and rode to the start.
Larsson was probably one of the last riders to go to sign,so my family and I decided to change place and go to see the riders at the start line. There were lots of people there and a British supporter even climbed on a wall to see the riders better.Me instead managed to find a little space between 2 Frenchmen.Right in front of me there were Nicki Sorensen and Roman Kreuziger,so I could see them very well.
A thing I noticed in that moment is the way that riders have to get concentrated before of the race.Someone,like Contador and Andy Schleck,was chatting and seemed quite relaxed,but for some other riders things were different.Vanotti for example crossed himself,while Nicki Sorensen was looking very thoughtful,just like the Skill Shimano rider near to him.When the Skil rider said something to him,Nicki smiled but then went back to his thoughts.Kreuziger instead wasn't talking with nobody and looked calm.
The English suppporters instead were very noisy.At a certain point,the one who had climbed over the wall (and that was wearing the Union Jack on his shoulders) started to scream "Bradley! Bradley! Braaaaaad!!!!" and to wave in Wiggins' directions.Wiggo was very kind,waved towards him and laughed.In fact,I think he was probably amused by his supporter's madness.
Then the signal was given and the stage began.
After a fast lunch,my family and I got in the car.We came back to Italy and,while driving on the col du Petit-Saint Bernard,I felt a bit sad.There were no more camper,no more flags,no more barriers ("no more Dane boys",Fangirl added)...Nothing.Also the Luxembourgian people at the beginning of the climb had left.
And so,at 1 pm,our drive home began.Ilaria was keeping me informed about how the race was going.And the news weren't actually nice:firstly she told me about Di Luca's positivity.And then she told me about Kenny Van Hummel's retire (that news pretty shocked me).
4 hours later,while we were trapped inside a traffic jam near to Milan,I turned the radio on and I heard the chronicle of the final kms of the race.At that point,Fangirl took over and started to show everyone a pic of Frank that she had found in the newspaper.And when I say Everyone, I actually mean everyone.
So,these were my 2 days at Le Tour.Hope you had fun reading about them and that you will be able to understand my awful English.