I'm Ashley, I'm 17 and I'm from Canada.

This July my mom, dad and best friend went to the Tour de France. We had decided this relatively late in about April or May. I was so excited and excited because maybe I'd see Christian Vande Velde. So my friend and I made Garmin t-shirts with orange, blue and yellow argyle. We had dreams of getting them signed and then... Christian crashed. We were worried he wouldn't be there but when he came back to do the Tour de Suisse I was very much looking forward to seeing him in France.

Everyone who I had told about the trip to the Tour had warned me that I probably wouldn't see much and that I probably wouldn't get an autograph or anything. Our first stage was the Grand St Bernard in Switzerland. I cheered for the four or five Garmin guys who came in the pack with all the main contenders. I had payed enough attention to pick out Wiggins but not Christian. But I cheered anyways.

Day two was the Col de la Colombiere. It had been pouring on and off on the mountain and we had been up there for hours (the roads are closed to cars by 10 AM and they didn't come until about 5 PM). The Schlecks and Contador flew up followed by Lance and Wiggo. Eventually another Garmin rider started to come into view. I realised 'It's Christian'. So I start yelling "Go Christian! Come on Christian!". Suddenly I started chanting "V-D-V! V-D-V!" and I saw that he started smiling that great toothy smile of his. So I started screaming even louder and as he passed me he turned his head and gave me one last grin as he started to accelerate up the climb. SCORE!! I was so happy that even though I slipped in mud and had mud all down my backside on the way down from the mountain I didn't care.

Day three was the time trial in Annecy. I waited outside the Garmin bus with my homemade t-shirt on, chatting with some Kiwi who thought I was American and taking loads of pictures of DZ's and Christian's time trial bikes. We did eventually decide to go watch the race at the finish line because that was really close to where the buses were parked. Luckily we also had a straight view to the VIP section with it's commentators and it's two big screens so we could kind of watch. As Christian went by we screamed "VDV!" again because we just had to. We ran back to the buses to see if anyone had stuck around. All the buses had left except Garmin. So my mom decided to wave the t-shirt around in hopes of someone coming out and signing it. Didn't work but she did manage to embarrass me. We gave up on that until my mom sent us back to try again and we saw a guy who looked like JV. We didn't want to bother him while he was on the phone so we went and stood near the bus. As we left it we realised we  would lose JV so we ran after him, yelling "JV!" He stopped and looked kind of freaked out that someone knew him but when I asked "JV can you take a picture with my shirt?" I don't think he could resist. Who can say no to a girl with a homemade argyle t-shirt? We chatted a bit and he was very nice but his sideburns weren't quite as pointy as I thought they'd be. So day three was another one for the books.

Day four was our Christian encounter. We went to the start village due to time constraints and we soon began to despair that no one would come close to us because they all signed in and went back to the buses at the start. So we made a mad dash to the buses but the crowd barriers (I hate those things) blocked any good paths. Happily the nice old French people who had stood that hour or two with us let us have our spot back. We decided that pictures might be the only things we'll get but they'll be close. When by some miracle, Christian Vande Velde parked his bike about a foot from where we stood. I started to say "Hi Christian!" but as I'm only 17 (and a girl) I probably wasn't very audible. So my mom yelled "Christian!" and immediately his head popped up and he smiled and waved at us as we smiled and waved at him. Then my mom yelled "Christian will you sign her shirt?" He motioned for us to pass it over and once again the nice French people and even the Silence-Lotto guy (not Cadel) passed it to him. He probably realised it wasn't a jersey or a Tour shirt so he unfolded it on his handle bars and signed it before handing it back. May I say that Lang, another Silence rider, looked quite jealous of Christian's fan t-shirt. For the next fifteen or twenty minutes he would look over every once in a while and smile before the race began and he left to our cheers.

In Paris we waited on the Champs rally close to L'Arc de Triomphe. We cheered during the race but it was the victory lap we were excited for. All the teams went by and we cheered for them all. Then it was Garmin's turn. As they went up the opposite side of the road we began to cheer and scream waving our t-shirts like flags. Matt White and Ryder Hesjedal (Oh Canada!) went by to our screams of "We love you Garmin!" as did Wiggo and a couple other guys. When Christian went by we went nuts. He gave us a peace sign before looking at us and recognizing the shirts. He smiled and waved at us and we celebrated the fact that he had remembered us.

Back home now, when people ask about the trip this is what I tell them first. I have a few stories about other riders and about things other than the race but this is what I tell them because VDV rocks just that much more.