Tour de France chronicle: The Pyrenees are dramatic, mystical and beyond your imagination

Climbing back home to La Mongie on the Col du Tourmalet felt like tripping upon a new civilization, and even more so after driving four hours from a finish line just 50 kilometers away. Around 10 p.m. local time, the fog was dense and all I could see were the outlines of the three cars crawling ahead of me. Inches from my door were people popping out of the thicket of camper vans lining the side of the road. Someone threw a small firecracker in front of my car, followed by some whooping. My imagination took the fog for smoke.

If this isn’t the most competitive Tour de France ever -- the yellow, green and, now, polka-dot jerseys are all essentially decided -- there has been an exciting new-ness to everything. There will be a new GC winner and there is honest-to-god hope for a Frenchman on the final podium. On Wednesday, Rafael Majka -- who had already become just the second-ever Polish stage winner last week in Risoul -- may have wrapped up the King of the Mountains title with a surge up to, through and past Giovanni Visconti on the climb to Pla d’Adet. The 24-year-old rode past me, 1,500 meters from the finish, bounding off his feet. Thirty seconds later, Visconti trudged around the bend, and eventually everyone else. Majka found an energy reserve that no one else knew existed. From where is unclear.

As I’m writing this, about 7:30 a.m., the fog is finally lifting. It’s unveiling a world that may as well as not have existed to this point. The fog will have burned off by the time riders near the peak, revealing an idyllic ski resort without the snow.

It’s wonderful, but I prefer the veiled, spooky version of the Col du Tourmalet. The initial drive up Tuesday was a quiet evening, and it was early enough to know that the sun should be shining. The vans were the only sign that I was heading in the right direction, but without any activity they appeared abandoned and dead. I arrived too late for check-in, so at the lobby there was a posting with my room number and the access code to the building.

It took three unsure steps into the darkened hallway for the motion sensors to recognize my presence and turn on dim lights. No sound came from the other apartment doors I passed. As promised, the front desk left the door open and my keys on the table. There were bunk beds, but I slept on the couch because the thought bothered me that there should be someone sleeping overhead.

I found sheets and made a bed. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to rest, but even if it was the rapture, somehow all I had to do was close my eyes to fall asleep.

I woke up to

If you have to watch just one of the remaining four stages, Thursday’s stage should be it. It features two Hors Categorie climbs, the most well-know being the Col du Tourmalet, which has been featured on the Tour de France course 82 times including twice as a summit finish. It’s the highest pass in the Pyrenees. In 1969 it served as the point when Eddy Merckx established his greatness. He made a breakaway at the summit and rode solo for nearly 120 kilometers to win Stage 17 by more than eight minutes. Merckx won his first-ever Tour de France that year before winning four more.

The 2,115-meter monstrosity will be followed by another H.C. climb up Hautacam to the finish. The black parts on the second half of the climb in this picture ...

... mean gradients of more than 10 percent, setting up could be a dramatic battle to the summit.

It may be the most important remaining stage and it takes place in a fairytale land. In short, it’s everything the Tour de France should be.

Because those speak well enough for themselves.

RVs against the fog:

La Mongie’s resident burro:

From the top of the Col d’Aspin:

From the stage:

Straggling riders: