First of all, I want to say thanks to all of you who have emailed me, or commented in my blog. It’s just great hearing from you! And a big thanks to those of you who’ve sent along a few bucks. Everything helps with covering the costs – I pay for everything out of my own pocket.

And, just so you know, being lost once in a while is just a part of working the Tour. It happens to everyone, even those with GPS. They just don’t write about I like I do…

I’m sitting in a humongous traffic jam about 2kfrom the top of Courcheval – it’s taken almost two hours to get just this far another part of being in the Tour. The Centre de Press is only another 2kor so away, and so is my motel. I’m looking at my odometer, and it looks like I have 3696k since I picked it up new. So, for going to a new motel in a new city every night, and going to new Depart location every morning, and driving the race route or taking the off-course route - getting lost twice isn’t bad! And one always finds their way, sometimes later rather than sooner. C’est le Tour.

Driving on the racecourse the entire way today was an incredible experience, as it always is in the mountains. Television just does not even begin to portray how long and steep the climbs are, and how narrow and twisty the descents are. It is unbelievable that someone could ride a bike up this stuff, and then fly down those narrow, hairpin turns at 50 or 60 kph. Talk about death-defying extreme sports…. Baby – this is it…

It was a madhouse at the finish! The television crews are the worst – they run frantically after the riders, but the cameramen also have a guy carrying the sound equipment attached to them by cables. There’s usually a crew of three and they are rough and determined to get their interview no matter what. If you’re standing in their way, they give you a shove or push or run over you. I have to say that the OLN and Discovery crews are quite civilized, but the rest are not.

It’s now another hour later and we still have not made it the other 2k to Courcheval Center. People are quite amused, as they walk by, to see me typing on my laptop, propped against the steering wheel and my chest. I’ve received grins and comments in several languages about my voiture (auto) office.