Day 11 - A Low Point

Tuesday 17 July 2007

Let me preface this post with a little disclaimer: what I’m about to write can be considered quite harsh, but I assure, I am still having a lot of fun on this Tour, and I am nowhere close to being bitter.

I love it when a no-name guy rides the best day of his life, and we really don’t care. I mean, how many times does an Ecuadorian win a stage in the Tour de France? Who cares if he doesn’t speak English! Get a translator! There are times I wish I worked for a non-American biased network. Oops, people from work are reading…

I’m going to go watch some Eurosport to calm down, haha.

The drive down to Marseille was a long one (3+ hours), but I was able to pass out for maybe and hour of it. I awoke around the time we reached the start town for tomorrow’s stage, Tallard. This little town is deep in wine country, and was a very cool little town with a castle and lots of little outdoor cafés. It was very picturesque; I can’t wait to see pictures in the truck tomorrow from there.

Before I got to Marseille, I was really excited to get there. I’ve never been to the Mediterranean Sea before. But then we pulled into town. France’s second [largest] city is a dump. It’s really an old industrial shipping port, and the city is…how do I put this nicely…a hell-hole. We’re set up inland a bit, so we’re not really anywhere near the sea. So I still have no idea what it looks like.

The hotel sucked ass. Ironically, while that was a dump as well, it did have one of the best showers ever. (You know, one of those ones with the huge rainfall heads? Awesome.) Which is good, because the French suck at making showers. Also, if you want to meet some rude Frenchies, Marseille is the spot. I’ve never encountered more rude people than Marseillians (?). They’re definitely not thrilled by Americans; nor do they want to serve you in any way.