You’re never really sure ahead of time what you’re coming to the Tour de France for. You have various ideas; a general feeling of excitement, getting to ride on roads unlike what you have back home, random acts of kindness from a bar, the usual stuff, right? Well today, just past the top of the final climb of the stage, Molina, shown in the photo above, is being offered a banana by a Vegan group that had set up camp opposite from us.

He didn’t take it. Maybe he’d heard of LeMond’s bad-peach story, or maybe it just didn’t make sense in any universe he’s part of, with a terrifying descent beginning just 100 meters further. Bu it was one of those “you had to be there” moments. Oh, as for how we knew it was a Vegan group, they had pretty fancy signage about that.

It wasn’t a long riding day; we took the train from Grenoble to Gap, and then rode to the top of the final climb, and back down to the finish afterward. Under 20 miles. But not 20 easy miles; with temps in the mid-90s on the way up, and some pretty steep pitches, it was far from easy. Not to mention having to be careful about not going through our drinks too fast; heat & wind dry you out very, very quickly. Kind of the theme so far! But it all went well, we’re back in Grenoble and I’m planning tomorrow’s “Tour rest day” activities. More soon! –Mike–