Mark Cavendish did it after Stage 5.

Cadel Evans did it after Stage 9, and again after Stage 10.

When you’ve been holding it together for long enough, “being strong” can wear you down and break that dam of tears you’ve been holding back.

This morning, after just one more frustrating exchange with a French receptionist, I bit my lip and ran to my car to keep from bursting into tears publicly. I enjoyed a good self-indulgent cry – WITH the air conditioning on, thank you – and debated my next move.

I decided that each day here at the Tour I wanted to try something just slightly different: one day the sign-in house, one day wander around the buses, one day miss the start to find somewhere along the route to park myself and enjoy the scenery, etc. Today I decided to camp outside of the BMC bus and see if I could catch Cadel Evans.

As ironic as it seems, crowds freak me out. Yes, I know that I’ve consciously, willingly chosen to come to Le Tour de France, the biggest deal in cycling on the planet, on a continent that loves cycling. Because of this, I’m not usually someone who will camp outside of a team bus, but today was different and everything was going out the window anyways, what’s facing one more discomfort?

It was actually the best thing I could have done.

John Lelangue, BMC team director, came out and shared his hopeful, positive words.

He spoke of keepin’ on, of not giving up, of moving forward with hope, ambition and positive attitude.

But what of the sadness, the disappointment, the emotion after yesterday’s stage?

John said, “Just after the race I think we needed a few moments to get the emotion out of our bodies and our minds, and then…once in the bus it was…‘Let’s go forward’ and ‘Let’s concentrate on today’s race’.”

Even his Tweets are positive!
@johnlelangue: “Even if we lost the jersey; I am so proud of @CadelOfficial and @BMCProTeam. What a day; they all did a fantastic work”

Cadel was inspiring as well, re-centered and ready to go again after sharing his emotion with the world after yesterday’s disappointing stage.

“Some days you do what you can and…..” Cadel, I hear ya.

Check out the interview here, before the start of Stage 10, Chambéry to Gap. If you understand Italian, you get a bonus question asked by an Italian TV station! –>

Stanley Tucci’s character in The Devil Wears Prada says, “What do you want me to say? ‘Poor you? Poor, poor you?’”

I laughed to myself as I thought of that line, then started my car for just one more day, one more adventure at Le Tour de France. I know that when I look back, I’ll be able to laugh at the whole thing, all over again. Funny how memories (and memory!) works like that.

Just as in travel and entrepreneurship, some days of Le Tour just don’t go the way you want. Never give up!