The boys look surprisingly relaxed today considering the imminent climb up the infamous Tourmalet; perhaps its the exceptionally comfortable looking TdF jocks that Bling is rocking for this leg of the tour. But he's not quite content, hoping to get his hands on some TdF mugs before the day is through. For some reason Peter Weening is set to foot the bill.
There is a "sweet head cold" going around (Sveino's words, not ours), the first victims being Simon Yates and Sveino himself. Simon hopes to help his bro Adam to get into the breakaway today for another awesome performance like Stage 10's.
And in case you were wondering, yes the boys are keeping up with Game of Thrones. It seems they are dreading the end of season five almost as much as we are . Whatever will we do without white walkers in our lives for another year?
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The stage visits Lourdes today, a small city with a permanent population of only 15,000 that gets 6,000,000 visitors a year - second only to Paris. We think TdF could have something to do with that...It's certainly attracted the infamous "King of the Mountain" who graciously lets the crew carry on after they fail to answer his riddle correctly (probably because it was in French). Shortly afterwards, Jules cops it from the local crow population and endeavors to keep his window closed in the future.
After the race, Bling mentions his breathing is improving, the two cracked ribs he has been dealing with apparently starting to settle down. He's "Svein tuft" and definitely deserves the t-shirt.
But it's a big day ahead tomorrow, the final day in the Pyrenees. The boys look forward to the next stage wishing Ivan Basso well post-op which they've heard went really well.
Here's hoping Sveino and Simon get better and we see the team go from strength to strength throughout the final half of the tour.
