Le Fangirl

Today's mission was to see the start of the stage then take a bit of a shortcut and cycle to the finish before the pros arrive.

We started the day with a few double expressos in a cafe on the route of the caravan. It's always good to see, but even more so with things like nuns grabbing the freebies and wearing the hats over their veils.

Next up was some pro Cyclist stalking before the stage got underway. This involved some fence climbing but we were helped by some local youth.

Mind the spikes Guv

Chava's bike is the pick of the peleton

Don't fancy E-B's chances on that

Frome Dog

Nuns on security duty

I then got a prime spot by the start line - G was looking v serious but had time for a few words with Christophe Prudome and the top Catholic priest in Lourdes.

G getting some device help

The guv decided to watch the race from the comfort of the hotel bar but for me it was time to jump on the bike and race Le Tour to the finish. Luckily, they needed to go over the Aspin, Tourmalet, Aubisque and 3 other classified climbs whilst I took an undulating shortcut.

Despite taking a couple of wrong turns, I got close to the finish in plenty of time. But I needed to take another detour as the Gendarmerie had closed a road about 3km from the finish where the team busses were parked up.

After a couple of cokes in a pop up bar which was showing the race about a km from the finish, I thought I'd see how close to the finish I could get. I got to 250m but then there was a barrier and only accredited people could get though.

I surveyed the scene for a while and the gendarme didn't appear to be checking too closely so I chanced my arm and confidently walked though - and to my surprised, she said bonjour and waved me through.

I then found a vantage point on the 25m to go sign and watched the last 50km on the big screen at the finish chatting to a friendly French guy.

The atmosphere was fantastic and whilst Roglic won the stage after escaping on the final descent, G sprinted to second place, hopefully sealing the yellow jersey.

Roglic taking the stage

G sprinting for 2nd

Julien Bernard & Laurens Ten Dam

Marc Soler

I then thought I'd see if I could cycle from the finish to the team busses for some more pro stalking and to my surprise, no one stopped me from cycling the same route as the finishers.

Eddie Boss on his proper bike

Amund Jansen - more on him later

I cycled along for a kilometre with Amund Jansan, one of Roglic's domestiques from Lotto Jumbo and had a bit of a chat about the stage and whether Roglic could win the tour next year.

It then got really surreal as I stopped to check were I was on Google maps and a French woman cane up to me and said 'bidon' then 'water bottle'. I didn't really understand why she was saying that, then she said 'can I have your water bottle' and then it dawned on me that she thought I was one of the pro riders. I politely said I wasn't a tour de france rider and apologised profusely.

Still, at least my years of trying to pull off the pro look must have worked to a certain extent. The rest of the ride to the team buses was nearly as amusing as I was cheered and photographed by the locals.

When I got close to the team busses, the gendarmerie who obviously knew I wasn't a pro waved me onto the parallel road. But I though I'd chance my arm one more time and cross a field and climb over a barbed wire fence and drainage ditch. When I emerged on the road I heard a shout and I thought I'd been rumbled. But it turned out to be one of the Wanty Group Gobert support staff and he threw me one of Marco Minaard's bidons.

Cue a few more photos then as time was getting on, I thought I'd better head back to Lourdes.

After a few hundred yards one of the Bora riders shot past me and I thought I'd see if I could keep up with him. We had a bit of a chat when he slowed down going up a hill though a the small town, then I spent the next 30km burying myself to keep up with him.

Fortunately, we came to a T junction and he turned left and Lourdes was right so I had managed not to get dropped. We did the 30km in 45 mins and got clocked at 49kph on the flat.

After a more leisurely final 20km back to Lourdes, all that remained of the day was the best meal of the trip accompanied by some more Grimbergen Rouge.

Tomorrow will be a dash up the Hautacam then hopefully a delay free trip home.