was the picture of Mauricio Soler pedaling up that huge mountain with the other King of the Mountain and GC leaders. I think it was the second day in the Pyrenees just after the rest day. The Pelaton had been climbing up those steep mountains for hours, they were on the last climb of the day, one of those out of classification brutes. Millions of us world wide were watching the stage on television waiting to see which rider would attack Rasmussen first. Soler was bouncing up the mountain on his bike and someone handed him a water bottle. He poured some water on his legs and face then shook the bottle in Rasmussen’s face, apparently asking if he’d like a drink. Rasmussen gave him a dismissive shake of his head. Soler shrugged his shoulders, tossed the bottle off to the side, and went right back to bouncing.

What a beautiful metaphor of this year’s tour. The old guard, hell bent on winning at any cost and driven to arrogance by their desire to excel, humbled by the boyish naivete of the new kid on the block who looked like he was just happy to have someone to ride up the mountain with him and willing to share his water.

A few minutes later Soler reached back trying to get a new bottle of water from his team car. Either he did not know or had forgotten that water bottles cannot be passed on the upward climb of the mountain. That made the earlier scene all the more entertaining for me.

If anyone finds a photo or a video clip of that scene, would you please email it to me or post a link here. I would love to be able to keep that as a memory of what this Tour has represented to me.