Saturday 25 July.
It was out for a walk again first thing this morning. We went straight along Ibis Rd intending to turn down Foxon Rd. but when we reached the turning there was another road to the left, Kiepersol Lane. I had never been along there in all the times and routes I had run here over the years so we decided to see where it led to. The tarred surface went for about 150 metres then became grass but there wasn't any path from there we could take so turned back. As we came to Foxon Rd to continue on our previous planned route it began to rain. It wasn't bad at first but soon it became quite heavy. We walked down to Stapleton Rd and crossed over to Russell Mellick Rd and round to Crain Rd then Abingdon and home. It was a good walk and we felt like going further this morning but the rain put us off.
We weren't too wet when we got in, but got out off our damp clothes and Moira showered while I made the breakfast. After I had tidied up in the kitchen we both started clearing out the garage. We made a pile of the junk that is to go for rubbish on Monday then packed what we wanted to keep on the shelves and along the sides of the walls. We finished by giving the place a good brush out. It now looks all right and everything is neat and tidy.
My next job was to repair chips in the tiles. I mixed up some Prattley Putty and filled in all the chips or breaks I could find. It didn't take much to fill them in and I had quite a bit of the putty left over. I used it to fill in a gap between the front door frame and the wall. After that it was time to relax. I made a cup of tea and worked on the prize crossroad in the 'Telegraph'. I managed to finish and submit it, one of these days I'll win the prize. The rain of earlier when we walked had gone off but later in the morning it clouded over again and started to pour. That settled any thought of playing bowls, anyway I wanted to watch the final day of the 'Tour' in the alps.
After lunch it was time to settle down for the 'Tour'. This was the final serious day's racing. It was still in the Alps and the finish was at the mountain top ski resort of Alpe d'Huez with its 21 hairpin bends snaking all the way up. They were showing the full stage on TV this time and as they set off it was along a downhill section for 25 km before reaching the first climb, Col de la Croix de Fer, an 'out of category' ascent to 2067 metres. Unfortunately we didn't see any of these early parts as our electric power was cut not long after the start. I hoped it would be back on after an hour and we wouldn't miss much, so I sat and read the newspaper on my iPad. At 3 pm it didn't come on and it was another hour to wait and hope. It came on at 4 pm, that was a 2 hour cut and I couldn't even make a cup of coffee to keep me going. For the time we were out of power we could have managed a game of bowls, if the weather had been better. When we come out to South Africa again a priority will be to have at least a little 'Camping Gaz' stove to make a hot drink during these outages.
Whatever happened before in the race we were now back just at the exciting part. They were on the slopes of Alpe d'Huez and all the leading contenders were still together. There was about 9 km to the finish and Valverde made a break and Froome let him go only to see a few minutes later Quintana shoot forward. He now caught his team mate Valverde who paced him clear of the chasers. When Valverde tired Quintana pushed on and caught up with another Moviestar team mate who had been in an earlier breakaway and was waiting to help Quintana. They raced around the screaming crowds at Dutch corner where they were lucky to find a narrow gap to make their way through. Shortly after the crowds the road widened out and Quintana left his helper and pushed on in pursuit of the now lone leader, the Frenchman Pinot. He had had about 2.5 minutes lead when Quintana made his initial break but it was too much to make up on the ferocious climb and Quintana got second place 17 second behind. Further back Froome didn't panic but kept a steady controlled cadence behind a couple of his lieutenants. He had 2.5 minute lead on Quintana at the start of the day and could afford to lose some of it. In the end he lost 1.5 minutes so still leads the race by a minute and tomorrow being a ceremonial ride into Paris he has won this year's 'Tour de France'. He also won the polka dot jersey for the 'King of the Mountains' due to his finishing position on the 'Alpe'
When the cycling was over we had dinner then listened to the radio until 8 pm when the detective 'Lewis' came on. This was the second and concluding part of the one we watched last Saturday. It was quite good and we didn't have any loss of reception tonight when it was reaching the climax. We listened to the radio for an hour before getting to bed at our usual time.
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