Stage 13

Woke up early in Lourdes and drove to Pau, then rode back to finish in Lourdes.  Rode with the Belgians in the morning, among whom Jeroen is riding the whole Tour like me, but with Belgium being so close, he seems to have new friends riding with him every few days.  The best part is that he feeds them in return for them setting the pace in front.  So for the flat parts in the beginning, the two of us just sat back and relaxed.  But eventually it got a little to hilly for this to be much use.  Good while it lasted though!

The big climb for the day was the Col d'Aubique, at 16.4km and an average of 7.1%.  Compared to stage 12, I wasn't really too worried.  Plus it was dry, so I should be able to enjoy the descent.  I was right too.  The climb wasn't really too hard compared to the day before and the descent was a lot of fun.  Some long runs along the mountainside and some technical hairpins too.  Lots of cows and sheep grazing in the mountains though, and they kept crossing the road... so there were some close calls.  Overall though, the day was relatively easy for a mountain stage and only had about 8000ft of climbing before a long downhill into Lourdes.

Lourdes was the biggest headache of the day.  The town is usually overrun with christian pilgrims, but when you add the Tour de France crowds it became too much.  The Tour is good for around 500-1000 extra cars and trucks in an already crowded town, so it got a little messy.

153.3km in 6:38:21 for an avg speed of 23.3km/h.  The power meter's battery seems to be dead, and I haven't been able to find a replacement yet.  Not that it matters, as I'm used to using it to keep myself from pushing too hard in training, but my level of exhaustion is doing that for me now.