Okay so Georg Totschnig is definitely my hero. At least for the weekend he is :) He definitely kicked it up today, and held a good, even if small ( 2 ish minutes) at the end lead today. another cool thing about him is that he is part of Gerolsteiner, the team sponsored by the German fizzy water bottle company; the team that stayed at the same hotel as us for one night outside of Heidleberg, some members of whiwh actually spoke to a few os us about to go dozn to the sauna. Yes I am a dork, but I think its cool that I stayed in the same hotel at the same time as professional cyclists going to the Tour de France! did i mention i love the Tour? hahahaha
Okay so my favorite on the Tour are Vinokourov, Rasmussen, and now Totschnig even if hes not very high up overall standing wise, and of course Armstrong. Today it was an interesting stage. Totschnig took a somewhat early lead. When I started watching around 3 ish, there was basically one huge pack. Long story short, as to not bore you, the pack then exploded, as they put it, and little groups broke off. There was the "yellow jersey group" with armstrong, there was a group with Rasmussen (best cliber) which sometimes was with armstrong; then fell back; then caught up; there was vinokourov who held up with those groups for a while but sadly fell back, then caught up then fell back... Ullrich stuck with Armstrong,; but fell back near the end. Basso was surprising; he held up really strong with Armstrong, through to the finish line....Not only were Armstrong's attacks smooth and well done; but what was actually cool was that for most of the race, he was wihout any team members. When he and the others broke off the pack, Armstrong was alone, so he was teamless for like at least 2 straight hours which is not something that really ever happens with him.
Okay fellow readers I apologize for boring you but today was like the last time in a looong time ill be able to watch the Tour on Live broadcast for several hours... stupid USA tv that doesnt have a channel that will do that...no they choose to show a clip here and there and say who won.. but its more fun watching the live action- it can get pretty tense!!!
Tomorrow's my last full day in Europe- I'm going to an amusement park;, then probably out to dinner, then to my grandmother's for the night. I get to get up at like 5 monday morning, I need to get to the airport before 6.30.... hopefully there wont be too much problems- the baggae worker people are um yeah striking....oh lovely! i just wanna get hooommme!!
hahaha
i get home monday at like 2 pm....;call the cell sometime after 3!! i missed y'all!
oh and i bought like SO much chocolate! (thats supposed to be an incentive to call me!)
one more thing... I Watched Fort Boyard tonight (love that show! they should show it in the US even if its in french) and i think it's the first time in my life that I've seen the team NOT get the final code word... sad. at least they get 3000 Euro for the foundation they chose to support, Children of Calcutta (tsunami children relief). they were a dynamic group, but i hate to say not very good with the event/challenges they had to do. oh well, what can you do....