The previous evening.
In their bedrooms, the riders are dreaming their dreams.
Richie Porte dreams he is climbing a shining cloud ladder to The Temple of Kind Favour. How lovely.
Joaquim Rodriguez dreams of eating a bowl of red Froot Loops, with a white plastic spoon.
Alejandro Valverde dreams he is forcefully grabbing a drink bottle. It's a pink Peppa Pig drink bottle! He squeezes it. Strings of pink bubblegum squirt out and gum up his tyres.
Rafal Majka dreams he is in a gondola, with Alberto Contador. Alberto is saying: Buen chico! A blessing!
Ageless is dreaming of Kobo. Click click, he clutches her, wraps his legs around her, he sucks at her creamy outsides, she is unresponsive......
Sweezus dreams of his popup cuttlefish hamburger restaurant, he is making hamburgers, toiling, sweating, the line of customers grows longer, he is under pressure, he wakes up, arg!
Arthur, with whom he is sharing a bedroom, is dreaming of spiders and nothing will wake him.
Belle et Bonne and Unni are awake, talking and laughing, drinking grape juice, playing "With or Without".
........
Stage seventeen. A sunny morning. A short stage with four difficult climbs.
Arthur is riding with Sweezus.
Man, says Sweezus, I had a bad night last night. I had one of those dreams.
Arthur says nothing. What is one of those dreams?
Sweezus rides on in silence.
Arthur gives in and asks, What dreams?
Oh you know, sighs Sweezus. Don't you ever have 'em?
I dreamed of spiders, says Arthur.
Rafal Majka rides past, overhearing.
He is buoyed by the thought that last night he dreamed not of spiders, but of a canoe, in which Alberto was supportive.
Rafal Majka rides up level with Michael Rogers.
How's it going? says Michael Rogers.
Bueno! says Rafal Majka. Today I have the blessing. But Rimbaud dreamed of spiders.
Spiders! says Michael Rogers.
What's this about spiders? says Gaius, who has been idling in Roger's slipstream.
Ask Rimbaud, says Majka, over his shoulder.
Gaius drops back level with Arthur.
They tell me you dreamed of spiders, says Gaius.
Dopeshit! says Sweezus. That buzz travelled fast.
Yes, says Arthur, inventing. I dreamed of a boy who found a new hairy orange spider in Tasmania.
I must look into it, says Gaius, whipping out a short pencil.
Thibaut Pinot is just passing.
Oui, says Thibaut Pinot. J'ai ecouté de cette nouvelle araignée!
Gaius is encouraged by this confirmation. He slows down to scribble more notes
Unni watches Thibaut Pinot disappear up the mountain towards Pla d'Adet, after Rafal Majka.
Without, says Unni, rather too loudly.
With, says Arthur, knowing the game.
With what? says Sweezus.
It's a game Belle and me play, says Unni. Some riders look hotter with helmets, some without.
Awesome, says Sweezus. Do I look better with or without?
With, says Unni, without really thinking.
Sweezus decides not to ask the next question.
They slog on up the mountain to where Rafal is already enjoying his blessing.
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