Another idyllic day at Vadnais

I was up early because of the extended coverage of today's TdF stage which began at 6am local time. I was up a bit before that surfing the net. I knew the cyclingnews site would not have live coverage that early so I was looking at Eurosport UK. When you log onto Eurosport they ask you what your location is. If you answer USA you get the usual array of extremely American sport, mostly baseball and fantasy football. On that page I answer UK and get choices from among the various sports that actually interest me.

I noticed that TdF coverage hadn't begun even at Eurosport yet but that was expectable because the stage did not formally begin until 5:45 local time. Versus made the decision to expand the show and yet instead of expanding the show only another 15 minutes to show the actual complete stage, Versus made the decision to come on the air after the stage started. They then did that stupid Trautwig/Bobke show until 6:15 and only finally then joined the stage in progress having missed the first climb. It is absolutely insulting having those people making decisions for me about what I want to watch. I believe the solution for me is to move to France.

I also noticed that Eurosport had some interesting graphics not available even on cyclingnews. They had a listing of GC contenders and time gaps actual and then a listing of only those people who actually had a chance to win the bicycle race and the time gaps, this time measured from the first among that group, Klöden. Much more actually useful information.

TOPWLH appeared some time later and we watched the live coverage together until the top of the first category 1 climb. It was getting pretty nice out so at that point we turned the race over to the VCR and went for a ride ourselves. It was another idyllic day at Lake Vadnais. This is a slightly different angle than I have offered before and as you can see, it is nice there.It has been 11 days since the last corn picture and the corn is still doing great. As mentioned previously, the first several pictures were taken while I was seated, the most recent from my knees. For this one I had to stand.Babe for scale. Can you find her? It is almost like Waldo. The corn has tasseled out and the ears are forming, the silk has appeared.

Then we came home and watched the rest of the stage on tape. It was a bad day for Australia in general, for sure, but a good enough day for my Aussie, Cadel Evans. The heads of state were too cautious again and I fear that they may have given Rasmussen too much time. I also fear that he may get even more time in some of the mountain stages to come but if the race is still close enough for the two remaining individual time trials to affect the outcome then Evans could still win. I have this vivid mental picture of Rasmussen in polka dots falling off his bike over and over again the last time he was in contention when the final time trial was run. The race is not yet over.

Did anyone else notice that Vino appeared to be bleeding from the knee soaking through his shorts there at the end? The team chose to have Klöden wait for Vino and try to bring him to the line with as little time lost as possible. By his gesture at the line it seemed clear that Vino recognized and appreciated that Klöden had sacrificed. The race is not yet over.

Today was fun.