Tour de France, Rest Day Morzine-Alvoriaz

Chris Horner & writer Fitzalan Gorman

The riders have covered 1570 kilometers to reach this rest day, already nearly a week and a half into this year’s Tour de France. Morzine-Alvoriaz is a much appreciated rest day for fans and cyclists alike, but obviously a bit more for those with all those kilometers under their legs.

The city of Morzine lit up shortly after the race concluded yesterday in anticipation for the evening’s World Cup finale. There were plenty of Spaniards and Dutch in the midst blowing horns and cheering. Every restaurant and bar had the game on and the downtown section of Morzine had the game shown on a big screen. Most fans conjugated in the town center to watch the game, which was intense and vibrant. When Spain scored the only goal of the match, the town came alive with cheers. Shortly after the match concluded, many fans, including myself, headed back to their hotels for a night of rest after a long day in the sun.

After sighting a few buses yesterday, including the Francaise Des Jeux bus near my hotel, I knew that I was on a mission this morning to find the teams. A hectic and nearly deadly drive up the hairpin turns to Alvoriaz, a path that less than 12 hours ago the riders climbed, proved rewarding. For myself, as a pre-RadioShack Garmin fan, I was able to converse with riders such as Tyler Farrar and Julian Dean. Other teams up at the summit heading out for their “easy” ride of 1 ½ hours were Footon, Milram, Sky, Bbox Bouygues and Katusha.

Soon I started the descent down the mountain, where I was passed by several riders, particularly those from Milram while I was going at least 30 mph. Their skill, agility and fearlessness was truly on display heading down this mountain road covered with cars, buses, trucks, RV’s and amateur riders.

Searching through the small town of Morzine, after passing Astana, Cervelo, BMC, Saxo-Bank, AG2R, Cofidis and Cervalo, the Shack’s buses spread out in front of me like a mirage. Squelching the tires of the car into the first illegal parking spot I could find, I headed over to meet some of the RadioShack riders.

Soon after arriving at Team RadioShack’s camp here in Morzine, Andreas Kloden and Gregory Rast pulled in. They both were kind to the crowd of about 25 people and signed autographs and took photos. I was lucky enough to grab Andreas and snapped a picture of the two of us.

After they headed in, the crowds thickened in anticipation of Lance’s arrival. I headed to the fringes were Chris Horner was working out on the trainer. One of the team’s mechanics saw the Garmin shirt I am sporting for the day, and as a former Garmin mechanic, he was kind enough to give me Horner’s water bottle and to have Chris come over for a photo. Chris was friendly, albeit sweaty, and said he was tired and looking forward to the rest day.

With nearly half of the tour completed, everyone rooting for Team RadioShack is anxious to see where we end up with the loss of Lance as our GC contender. Fingers crossed that the wrecks and flats are behind us and the tour will open up from here.

By Fitzalan Gorman, staff writer