Carnival comes to town

The brutal heat wave seems to have finally abated. It has seemed a lot like July around here lately and I guess that figures. With the waning of July comes the season of community carnivals and fairs. I came across a carnival on my ride today.This set up is in Island Lake Park in Shoreview. It looks like it may be a good place to avoid tomorrow and Sunday when the carnival will presumably be in full swing.

The Tour was treading water today in anticipation of the ride of truth, the individual time trial set to run tomorrow. It is apparent that not every remaining participant thinks the race is finally clean. Here's a quote from cyclingnews:

"In a heartfelt and brutally honest statement, Belgian superstar Tom Boonen said yesterday that, of those remaining in this year's race, he picked Cadel Evans as one of the riders he still trusts. 'I have given up my belief in most of the rest," he confessed. "It is possible to ride the Tour without doping, and to ride and win too. Cadel Evans proves in my eyes that you could win it without doping.'

For his part, Evans was noncommittal, saying, 'Unfortunately there's no prize for the first clean rider.'"

I, for one, note that although these riders do not actually come right out and say so, it is pretty clear that neither one of them seems to think that Contador is clean.

Allez Cadel.

According to the FC Nantes website the regular season was supposed to kick off today against Stade de Reims. However, according to the Reims website the game is not until Tuesday. The Reims site also indicates that the game is on TV so perhaps it has been delayed for the benefit of TV. This strikes me as possible as this is a meeting of former giants. Reims was the outstanding team of French football in the 50s and into the early 60s and was champion of France six times, the last time in 1962, and two time winner of the Coupe de France. Nantes took over from Reims as the preeminent team of the later 60s and has been champion of France eight times beginning in 1965, most recently in 2001, and three time winner of the Coupe de France. So perhaps this a match up that might strike the fancy of the French TV sports watching public in the first week of Ligue 2, especially considering that Ligue 1 does not kick off until next week. The game is at Nantes.