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What a fortnight! I have spent most of the last 2 weeks overseas, largely in France, for the last week of the Tour de France, courtesy of the phone company HTC.

And what a jam packed tour it was. I was required to write a blog post everyday - and I think I succeeded. some days were just so jam packed I fell asleep at the PC at night, or got up stupidly early to edit photos and write an article. Not only was I there to see the tour but I also had the chance to ride thanks to BikeStyle Tours. I was riding a Cannondale Synapse bike and man it was fun. So many times I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming as I rode down and then back up the Col de Manse (including crossing Lance Armstrong's legendary wheat field), riding up the Alpe d'Huez on the morning of the day the race finished there and part of the time trial course in Grenoble.

Then of course there were the other opportunities, I was able to go to the HTC Highroad team bus and meet and hang out with Mark Cavendish, Danny Pate, Matt Goss. Lars Bak, Bernie Eisel and Mark Renshaw.

I also spent the last day in Paris on the Champs Elysee in a hospitality marquee with road side seating 220 metres from the finish line. Wow - that was a fast last 8 laps!

I was given the trip by HTC because I fit the following criteria, loved HTC phones (we have 5), heavily into social media, and into cycling and the tour specifically. This blog of course shows all three clearly as I have written about my numerous HTC phones, cycling and social media a lot. My Tour de France Diaries blog for HTC can be seen publicly on Facebook.

The following article is reprinted from a Microsoft Email