DANGER!!!!

The encounters that I have with pedestrians are usually far more dangerous than any of the other encounters that I have while riding. Today I was riding peacefully down Roselawn when a crazed pedestrian screeched at me, nearly causing a serious accident. It was that known hazard, the TOPWLH, out and about in her other incarnation as a pedestrian. Okay, I exaggerate. It was a pleasant exchange, she seemed happy to see me.

It was a nice evening for a ride over to the river. This is some landscaping in the front yard of one of the houses fronting on the River Road between the Marshall Avenue Bridge and the city limits. I just thought it looked nice.In news from the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Wales tonight plays Fiji in the final match of the preliminary round for both teams, the winner to advance to the quarterfinals, the beginning of the knock-out stage. Huh? you say? Where did this come from? Well, the Rugby World Cup this year is being held in France and the Wales v. Fiji match-up will be in Nantes.

One of the features of the Coupe de la Ligue is that the lower placed team in each round plays at home. Every league team is included in the draw so even a low placed team could win the Cup, particularly when given the advantage of hosting games. This also means that for the team winning Ligue 1 to win the Cup they would have to play every game on the road. Nantes played Thursday night against AS Monaco of Ligue 1. Monaco is a highly rated Ligue 1 side, featuring the Brazilian superstar Nene. This presumably should have been a home game for Nantes due to the current unpleasantness of Nantes being in Ligue 2. However, preparations for the Wales v. Fiji rugby dust-up meant that the Nantes stadium was not available to the usual primary tenants. The Coupe de la Ligue game had to be played in Angers. Now, Angers is a lot closer to Nantes than it is to Monaco, but it is Angers, it is not Nantes. The game attracted less than 9,000 spectators, hardly a home field advantage for Nantes.

Despite this Nantes dominated the first half, leading 2-0 at the break. But Monaco roused themselves after the intermission, Nene scored twice and the team from the principality prevailed, 2-3.

Monday Nantes returns to the more important business of Ligue 2 and the quest for return to Ligue 1 by traveling to eastern France for a game against third place Grenoble. Le Havre played today, dispatching AC Ajaccio 0-3, once again edging themselves ahead of Nantes in the table, at least until Monday.