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.

90 percent

I wanted to go looking for those turkeys in better light conditions but wind conditions required a ride in the opposite direction.

So I went looking for sumac. Sumac changes early and goes brilliant red. I thought if the ashes were changing that the sumac must already be changed and I just hadn't noticed it. Sumac is a weed tree, not the sort of thing you see planted in somebody's landscaping. I expected to find some near the railroad tracks.

This is a view across the tracks and up towards the freeway along Saint Anthony on the hill down to the river. The sumac is visible on the left of the picture.The sumac looks to me to be another victim of the drought. The parts of the plant that have changed have gone directly from green to brown.

Also visible in this picture is an extremely significant fallout of the bridge collapse. The traffic from 35W has been diverted onto 94 and then 280 across along the boundary between the two cities until 280 joins 35W north in Roseville. Reconstruction of the interchange to allow double lanes of traffic to exit to 280 have resulted in the above sign.

90 percent of my mileage goal achieved with a month and four days in the likely riding season remaining. About 15 percent of the season remains and I need 10 percent of the miles. I pronounce myself confident.

Today's ride produced a first for this year. The weather forecast was for rain developing after dark so I was not too worried as I headed out on the ride. My usual examination of the sky, however, convinced me to cut off the ride into Saint Paul at about the place where I took today's picture. I wanted to be closer to home in case it started to pour. Well, I was home by 6:45 and it was raining hard by 7:15.

But what made it a first for the year was that as I rode up Roselawn towards Fairview with less than a mile to go I could see lightning in the sky over downtown Minneapolis. I do not recall previously this year observing lightning while riding and I can report that lightning is a strong motivator. The last mile went fast.

Ashes going yellow

It rained yesterday, hard for a while. Today dawned cloudy and stayed that way through noon. Eventually the sun broke through but then the clouds won out, returning with a vengeance. When I got home the best available information, at Mikey J's, indicated that the clouds which were likely to produce precipitation had moved on out.

But it was dark.

I rode out to the north and circled around Lake Owasso at a distance of about a half mile from the lake. After turning on Rice Street I came upon TURKEYS. Unlike the Michigan birds who seem quite shy, these gobblers were just standing along Rice Street, looking to me as though they were cleaning up some acorns under an oak tree or something similar, they were definitely relaxed. I wanted to photograph these brash birds but it was just plain too dark. I passed on the photo and hoped that Mikey J was correct in predicting that there should soon be clearing from west to east. I was hopeful that there would be better light when I got home and that there would be enough like that I could convince the ash tree in front of my house to pose to illustrate the sudden change in color that has overcome the local ash trees. The ash trees are the first of the healthy trees to go and they are now rushing towards yellow.It is quite a stunning change from as recently as Saturday when the greens were mostly still green.

In football news, Nantes prevailed over Libourne in front of a crowd of 2,936. A team that plays in a 50,000 seat stadium needs to be playing in a league higher than the league in which teams draw crowds of less than 3k. The account on the FC Nantes website indicates that it was probably a quite exciting event for that smattering of French people in attendance. Nantes dominated the first half and led 2-0 at the break. But they played without passion in the second half and eventually Libourne nearly made them pay. Libourne scored in the 88th minute to draw within one and when they scored again in injury time it seemed as though they had miraculously rescued a point. But in the exuberance of the moment the Libournese pressed forward trying to score the winner. In what the Nantes site admits is the single foray by Nantes into the Libourne zone during extra time the Zimbabwe international and early season sensation Harlington Shereni scored just before the final whistle to rescue Nantes from embarassment. Nantes returns to the top of the table, now 2 points ahead of Le Havre. Next up is Monaco at Nantes on Thursday in the next round of the League Cup. Monday Nantes returns to Ligue 2 action in a key road game at 3rd place Grenoble.

Allez Nantes!

A bee in my bonnet

It was very summer-like here today, right down to the humidity. It was 81 by shortly past noon, about 85 by the time I finished my ride, and genuinely muggy the whole time. Well, not first week of August muggy, but there definitely was water in the air.

I rode down to the Fort Snelling overlook. I have ridden there a handful of times this year but it is a bit further than my rides have been of late. Still, it was a nice day and the miles came pretty easily.

Here is a view down into the river gorge from the overlook. Any questions about the boat should be referred to Ms. Wireless.Something happened on the ride home which has never happened to me before. A bee flew into one of my helmet vents. I have had that happen before but always before the insect flys back out. This one was walking around in there. Very disconcerting, to say the least. I had to quickly pull over and yank my helmet off before Senor Bee got any aggressive ideas.

Speaking of Ms. Wireless, she had arranged a late afternoon movie date for the three of us. In view of this schedule I had to ride at noon and missed the football game. More on that in just a bit. The movie was "Two Days in Paris" and it was fun. It is pretty funny with lots of language barrier produced outrageous behavior.

Missing out on the American football was not a loss as I had watched an excellent football game on the soccer channel in the morning. In front of more than 75,000 fans at Old Trafford, Manchester United defeated Chelsea 2-0. It was an excellent game between two of the giants of the sport. The big news in football this week was the departure of Jose Mourinho as manager at Chelsea. Mourinho had presided over two league championships and an FA Cup but it was apparently not enough for the Russian multi-millionaire who owns the London based Blues. Mourinho is out by what is being termed "mutual consent".

In France, visiting Troyes held Le Havre to a 0-0 tie. Le Havre inches a point ahead of Nantes with Nantes to play Monday night against Libourne, the team residing next to last in the league. Nantes looks poised to at last assume first in the table on points in addition to the goal differential which has been the margin which has placed the Canaries first for most of the early part of the season.

And in cycling news, Denis Menchov of Rabobank wins the Vuelta a Espana. Carlos Sastre of CSC complained during the last week that the race was not hard enough. That's certainly a complaint we haven't heard before. The other cycling news is that Floyd Landis has lost his appeal of his doping suspension. It looks like the organizers of the Tour de France will finally be able to declare a winner for 2006.

Rain, ride, rain, wind

That's my recent bicycle log entries, rain, ride, rain, wind. That makes for only one ride in the last four days, this is what happened at the end of August turning a promising mileage total month into the worst August ever. But we rode today, it was 75 when we passed the time and temperature by the A&W, pretty much you don't get days much nicer than today.

The person who occasionally rides with me (TPWORWM) achieved a nice mileage milestone on today's ride. Here is is:This takes her comfortably past that whole 2 miles ridden for every dollar spent on the bicycle threshhold. She noticed that she was 10 miles away while we were at Vadnais and watched the total odometer carefully from that point on until we were home. She clicked past this number while in front of the neighbor's driveway.

So here's where she was when she achieved the above milestone:
This gives us all an opportunity to note the progress of the color change on the neighbor's maple tree.

And here's where she was when she noticed that the milestone was imminent:It is Lake Vadnais in the early fall with some yellows or at least a dimming of the greens starting to be present in the hardwoods on the north end of the lake.

It was a spectacular day for a ride and that helped make for a very nice ride.

Changes coming

It rained yesterday and even a bit more over night but by noon today the sky was clear and the temperature was rising. The winds stayed quite light from the northwest. Conditions were quite pleasant for a ride after work.

There are several signs of fall about. Some of the trees that I photographed for their flowers in the spring are colorful again with a full load of crabapples. I pass a yard with a couple of female mountain ash trees with the characteristic orange berries. But most of the foliage is still green except for those trees which seem pretty obviously stressed. This maple has turned completely and is already dropping leaves.I don't think that is a healthy tree.

Our season ticket package for hockey arrived today. The fat package of tickets seems like a lot but the season goes by fast and soon the envelope is empty. I guess the same observation applies to bicycling.

Cow fixation

What can I say? I don't live in New York. We have cows here.I was nearing the end of the ride and already had a picture when I came upon this giant Holstein near Lake Como. You don't see cows this big all that often.

The other interesting bit concerns the wheelie king from last week. I rode past his house today and he was just turning off the car after getting home. I was wrong when I described him as not old enough to drive. Today he was driving. He is still the wheelie king though.

FC Nantes returned to Ligue 2 action with yet another Monday night game, this time against Sedan. The rest of the league games last Friday had once again had the effect of moving Nantes out of the top spot in the table, this time to fourth. The most significant of the Friday games was Le Havre winning 3-2 at Dijon. Le Havre was second and Dijon third entering that game.

In front of a middling crowd of just over 18,000 tonight in Nantes the Canaries scored early on what the commentators described as their first serious entry into Sedan territory. Attacker Mamadou Bagayoko created the chance and was fouled in the area giving Nantes a penalty kick. Thomas Dossevi converted the penalty for a 1-0 lead in the 5th minute. Sedan equalized in the 18th minute when Nantes returned the favor with a foul in the penalty area. Apparently everyone in the stadium conceded it was a foul except the linesman who raised his flag indicating offside. The referee conferred with the fourth official and overruled the linesman, instead pointing to the spot. The score at the half was 1-1. Harlington Shereni put Nantes back on top in the 55th minute. What commentators called a beautiful collective effort was initiated on the left by Mamadou Bagayoko. The pass was first to team captain Frederic Da Rocha and then to Shereni who produced the winning goal. Shereni has newly been named Ligue 2 player of the month for August.

Nantes returns to the top of the table. The Canaries are next in action next Monday against FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin at its 8,000 seat ground in Libourne. Libourne is currently 19th in the table.

And then we went to the Twins game

I looked out the door THIS morning and summer had returned. Well, actually, normal temperatures for September had returned. It was sunny, clear and 54 by 8:30 and I went for a bicycle ride. Getting properly dressed for the conditions has been tricky but I am confident that after a couple of trials that I have regained control over the temperature control issue. I was absolutely dressed correctly for 54 and as the day warmed I was able to manage layers and was absolutely dressed correctly for the low 60s by the time I got home.

I suppose this is art. I am not qualified as a critic in this sphere either but I am willing to say that it looks like good welding.This piece is in the parking lot in front of a landscaping/design business over in the industrial zone just off University. The chartreuse color of the welding is matched by the highlights on the company's otherwise white trucks.

Emily took us to the Twins game again. Those seats are really amazing. This is Scott Baker of the Twins delivering the first pitch of the game to Curtis Granderson of the Detroit Tigers.Granderson hit a home run a couple of pitches later and Detroit went on to win 6-4. The Twins had the bases loaded in both the eighth and ninth innings but could not overcome Detroit's early lead. Even so, it was an exciting game and we had fun.

Back from the brink of winter

I laid in bed for a bit after awakening at more or less the usual time this morning. Then my health maintenance routines on Saturday morning take a bit longer than on weekdays so it was 6:45 before I opened the door to pick up the morning newspapers. Here is what I found:It is a bit early for frost but not so early that anyone should be astonished or anything like that. Frost in September is completely expectable even if somewhat unwelcome.

But the cold seems to have passed and the sun did good work today. The BB and I waited until almost 2pm for it to be warm enough to ride and by that time it was nearly 60. It warmed a bit more while we rode and ended up being plenty warm enough for a very nice ride on a beautiful fall day.

We ended up at the Bell Tower. That's Old Main and the new Library in the background.The Bell Tower was built with donations provided by the classes of 1927 and 1928, at least that's what the plaque just partially visible on the wall to my left as I took the photograph says. So it is old enough to have had traditions associated with it even before BB and GZ arrived on campus. Before we left we reenacted the ancient ritual under the tower and got the expected results.

It isn't D&W

The forecast for tonight is a possible all time record low for this date, something into the lower 30s. Cover those tomatoes and dress warmly if you want to ride a bicycle.

Tights, jacket, arm warmers under the jacket, base layer under the jersey, full finger gloves, helmet liner, I was not warm but I was warm enough.

Having mentioned it yesterday I felt like the Rice Street A&W should make an appearance. This drive-in restaurant still exists at the corner of Rice Street and South Owasso Boulevard.It's not D&W but it does offer fish (for only $1.99). It's also not Hot'N'Now. If I remember drive-in food correctly it is probably more like luke warm and after a bit. But it does boast All American Food. I am willing to bet without seeing the menu that you can get a burger basket at this place.

Does anyone see the temperature? Yup, it was cold today.

Last day in shorts?

It rained this morning but then cleared up nicely. It was plenty dry by the time I got home. It was wavering between sunny and overcast. Yes, that is possible, the sky seemed about half of each. It was windy but it seemed warm enough. I headed out in shorts but with a jacket. I thought that would be a decent compromise for the 66 degree temperature.

A front was passing through and behind it was cold. When I passed the time and temperature clock across from the A&W on Rice Street the temperature read 59. I was not warm enough. I hate being not warm enough.

I came home and laid out the tights.

TOPWLH informed me that I was FOS about the geese. She passed the corn field half an hour after me yesterday and reported hundreds of geese. She said I just had missed feeding time.

Well, I am not privy to goose feeding schedules so I suppose I could be wrong. Here's a picture taken today.So belay those stories of all the corn being gone from the field. The geese are still working on it. By the way, that's the State Fair water tower peeking over the top of the hill.

Architecture re-visited

I almost rode yesterday. It was cold, so cold that we turned the furnace on. And it was windy, 21mph steady winds with gusts to 30. But the sun was out and . . .

I had gotten my tights out of the drawer, I located my jacket. I filled the water bottles and sat on the steps looking out the window. And finally didn't go. Good sense prevails, I think. That would have been a miserable ride.

Warmer today, lighter winds, but in the end still a day which draws the distinction of being the first appearance of my jacket at this end of the season. But a nice enough day to be on the bike and it ended up being a just fine ride.

I headed out towards the south and immediately passed the corn field. There was not a single goose to be seen anywhere among the remnants. The large concentration of geese seen in the earlier blurry photo made short work of the wasted corn. It was a bit eerie though, after there having been so many geese there the last time to now find the field bereft of fowl. (Blogger's note: "bereft" inserted to please one of the known readers, you know who you are.)

I ended up in Desnoyer Park and here's the architectural wonder that I failed to choose for photographing the last time I was over there.The book says this is a Spanish-Moorish fantasy built for an artist who probably never lived in it. Painter Nicholas Brewer, known for his portraits, worked all around the US but maintained his home base in Saint Paul. In 1925 he commissioned this exotic looking house on a hilly lot with views of the Mississippi. Its most distinctive feature is pictured here, a pergola-like log frame that extends across one corner of the roof.

From the exact spot where I straddled my bicycle and took the above photo I turned my body from left twist to right twist and got another shot of the house that I like.The architecture critic is entitled to his educated opinion but I like this one better.

This time I really mean last

Today's weather was a slightly cooler rerun of yesterday. It rained a bit overnight and it was cool and overcast in the morning. But it cleared off again and the blue skies made it almost seem nice by mid-afternoon. The problem was it was not warm.

I rode my bicycle and when the sun started to go down the heat quickly drained out of the day. The last two or so miles on the way home I was not warm enough. I do not like being not warm enough.

And I really mean it this time when I say last. The focus isn't perfect but I am pretty sure you can still get the idea.The geese have discovered the corn. With this many geese the field will be gleaned completely bare in a day or two and then there will be absolutely zero possible reasons why there would be another picture of the corn field.

Or at least that's what I say today.

Saint Paul Classic, not

Today is the first Sunday after Labor Day and that has been for at least the time that I have been paying attention the day on which the Saint Paul Classic is held. They close the river road and the grand round parkways to set up a grand day of bicycling. It is an extremely large event with literally thousands of riders. I have ridden either in the event or at least over to where it was being held to observe every year beginning in 2001.

I was up early enough to ride it this year if I had wanted. But the streets were a little wet from overnight rain and it was, wait for it, 50. Yup, 50. Officially cold. I stayed in the house.

I was a little disappointed that this weekend is a weekend reserved for international team competition in European football and the only game I was remotely interested in was yesterday (Iceland 1, Spain 1 in Reykjavik). I waited until noon and American football filled the void. I pretty much watched the whole game Minnesota v. Atlanta.

But by 3pm I was on my bike. The day had cleared and it was a beautiful blue sky day. It was still a bit chilly, 65 or so when I was out, but it was a beautiful day.

When I ride to the north I follow Hamline to the end and then drop through the neighborhood bordering Lake Josephine. There is a long but relatively gentle climb up to Lexington. The problem with this climb is that it continues after Lexington and then gets steeper. Riding the whole thing can be a bit of a tester. This is a view of Carlton Drive taken from the top of that climb.This is the look down the street on the other side of the climb. As you can see, beautiful day. Carlton goes downhill to the end of the block where another street crosses. You might be able to see one of the houses down there. Those houses back up to Judy (thy true name is Mud) Lake.

No big mileage milestones today, just a really nice ride through Shoreview.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

It was definitely fall today. The Weather Channel said 71 at the downtown airport at shortly past noon but Mikey J's weather site said 65 in Little Canada. The radar revealed that there was a front lurking out to the northwest and a possibility of something also developing to the southwest. All in all, not an extremely promising day before the ride. We are both pictured in this entry and you can see we both went with long sleeves and neither one of us ever felt overheated. It was definitely fall today.

Here is a view of my cyclocomputer. This is the trip distance setting. You don't get the first digit on this setting but it was also a "9".This is the odometer total setting. This number, seldom seen on a bicycle odometer, speaks for itself.Here's where I was when this occurred. It is at the north end of the Lake Vadnais access road.About the this time I got a really good look at the northwestern sky and didn't like what I saw. We rode down to the lake and I got a good look at the southwestern sky and didn't like what I saw. We rode hard all the way home, no resting. When we got close enough that it was obvious that we had beaten the rain, we stopped for one last look at the corn field, Babe for scale.The remaining corn seems to have reverted to that knee high status. Here in the corner of the field the harvester making turns often misses a few stalks. I gleaned those ears off a couple of stalks that had been run down instead of chopped off. The geese will be along to clean up those ears. And that really and finally is the end of the corn series.

Barn denizens

The front came through here overnight. It rained all night and a bit more this morning. This moved the hot weather out and when the front had passed what we got was partly cloudy, breezy and about 75, in other words, an excellent early fall day. I rode my bicycle.

All this talk about barns certainly should raise this group back into the limelight, or maybe the sunlight.Peaceful looking, I should say.

End of a series

It was hot again today and very windy. I pretty much convinced myself that it was too windy. I obviously don't reach that conclusion easily but as I say it was very windy. I got home from work and actually sat down and watched some tennis. The mixed doubles final was on USA and I got interested. Doubles is a version of tennis played more often by older folks and this was the particular version of doubles that I am most familiar with, the version where one member of the partnership is noticeably better than the other player.

And what great doubles players these two guys are! Leander Paes on one side, incredibly quick hands, extremely intelligent player, always in the right spot. And on the other Max Mirnyi, tall, huge serve, quick for his size, also an extremely intelligent player. It was great fun to watch. Mirnyi, who is from Belarus, and his partner, 18 year old fellow Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, rallied from 1-6 in the tiebreaker to win the tiebreak and the set, and the match and the championship.

So about that time I started to think maybe I should ride a few miles. The wind had died down a bit but stormy weather looked imminent. I decided to try it but to stay close to home. This is the first thing I came to.So the harvest is obviously complete, the corn series is over.

It was windier than I thought but I got in some nice miles and I got home just as the weather turned really threatening. Surprisingly enough, as I type this it still hasn't rained but even so, I am glad I came in when I did. It would have been tempting fate to have stayed out with the sky looking like it did.

Lack of credentials as architecture critic laid bare

It was hot and humid again today, another day of strong winds from the south. I headed out into it, riding past the fair grounds, this time remembering to alter my route to NOT ride through the bushel of broken glass on Como, and eventually on over to the river. Apparently the hot weather supersedes the previous memo on the season being over as there were a bunch of racer boys out tonight. Those boys sure make me nervous.

On the way home I got this picture of my favorite house in Desnoyer Park.As you can see, fabulous location, distinctive looking house, from that hillside lot it may well be possible in the fall with the leaves off the trees to see down into the river gorge. It is a really nice spot, I was sure it must be in my Twin Cities Architecture Guide.

While standing there halfway up the hill to get this picture I briefly considered also photographing the house across the intersection to the left from this one. It was pretty interesting looking but I decided to stick to the one I like.

Guess which one is in the book.

But I redeemed myself by enhancing my credentials as a finder of public art. Here is the sculpture at Como Park that we have not been previously able to find, the one at Hamline and Midway Parkway.It is quite an interesting piece, a close up examination reveals lots of detail, faces finding their way out of the rock features. It is striking.

The reason why we couldn't find this before is that it wasn't there before. It is right out in the open at the corner, an intersection I ride through nearly every time I head south. If it had been there previously it would not have been possible for me to not have seen it. So it is newly installed, no longer missing.

First day of fall

It was easy to tell that it was fall when I got home from work. It was only 92 with a dew point of 60. To top it off there was a brutal wind out of the southwest. It felt important to ride in conditions like that in July but it didn't seem as important today. But I went, albeit for a somewhat abbreviated ride.

I rode past the corn field and discovered that harvest has begun. I actually saw the harvester but as I manuevered to try to get a photo the grain wagon bin filled and the tractor pulled off and headed back towards campus.I did get a picture of the field. It looks like bad corn. You expect a lot of dust with a corn harvester as with any kind of grain harvest. But you expect it to be greenish, bits of corn plant blown into the air by the cutting and chopping. This dust was grey looking like pieces of dirt. It didn't look right to me, I think it is bad corn.

I continued on the ride past the fair grounds. I commend the clean up crew for already having run a sweeper down the streets surrounding the grounds. However when you get to the bottom of the hill past Raymond across from Saint Anthony Park Elementary school you come to evidence of several rear end collisions. There is still about a bushel of glass shards completely covering the street all the way out into the traffic lane. Somebody remind me to find a new route.

The wind was brutal, as hard as any I have ridden into this year. It was an abbreviated ride so I turned back before I was completely, totally knackered. I was then pleased to discover that I felt very strong on the ride home.

Labor Day

Days like today are the reason we live in Minnesota.

On the last day of the State Fair I headed out towards the north today even though the wind was again from the south. It was just a whole lot easier today as the rule of slight differences completely changed circumstances. Yesterday the wind was from the southwest, even south southwest. The predominant vector was south. This ride is mostly north-south so riding into a predominantly south wind is the hardest work you can acquire. Today the wind was from the southeast, but mostly east southeast. The predominant vector was east. Just a whole lot different deal, today was easy.

I rode to Vadnais again today and it occurred to me that I have often stated that the ride down the access route to the lake is very remindful of a north woods experience and yet I have provided photos only of the lake itself. I decided to fix that today.

The first picture is shortly after entering the access road from the north. This is the first set of stately red pine that you come to, still about a quarter mile from the lake itself.

You roll along a little farther into that curve and you come to the spot from which the second and third photos were taken. The second is of a side road, uphill into the sand and the pines. By this point the smells are distinctly not city, very distinctly north woods.

The third photo is from the same spot but turned back to face down the road to the lake.

It was a spectacularly beautiful day and a spectacularly beautiful spot.

Nantes traveled to the Corsican town Bastia for Monday Night Football. An interesting look at one obvious reason why Nantes will not be in this league long was provided again today. Last week Nantes was quite disappointed to play a League Cup game with only 11,000 people in the stadium at Nantes. Today they played before a near capacity crowd in a stadium with a capacity of approximately 10,800. Nantes belongs in the next higher league.

The rest of Ligue 2 played their games on the regular league night, Friday. The increasingly troublesome Le Havre dumped FC Gueugnon by 4-1 to temporarily move 3 points clear of Nantes into first place. Grenoble stumbled on the road, being held to a 0-0 draw by Clermont Foot to fall out of first. Dijon climbed back into the top three with a 1-0 victory at Stade de Reims. Troyes, like Nantes relegated last year from Ligue 1 and looking to win promotion back to the top rung, pulled itself into the upper group with a 3-1 victory at Chateauroux. Going into today's game Nantes was temporarily fifth.

The game in Corsica turned on a free kick in the 36th minute. Taken by David De Freitas, the kick eluded the Bastia keeper but found only the woodwork surrounding the goal. The ball dropped down outside the line but onto the foot of Nantes attacker Thomas Dossevi who tucked in what would be the only goal of the game. Nantes 1, Bastia 0, Nantes returns to the top of the table.

Summer goes out on top

I checked the radar just as we headed out and for some reason one of the local TV station radars said possibility of a thunderstorm. Upon review from the driveway, there were some clouds in the southwest. I kept an eye on them during the first several miles of the ride as we circled not yet committed to the full route. When the time for committment came the clouds had passed to the south so off we went. It ended up being, like yesterday, a pretty much perfect day.

It was the Babe's favorite route except for some pretty gravelly park roads through Sucker Lake park. We dodged the gravel by riding bike path through that park and we arrived in good time at Lake Vadnais. For orientation, yesterday's image with the sign is about 20 yards to the Babe's left. The pump house is behind the trunk of that tree on the right.As we saddled up to start for home the Babe observed that there was a very pleasant breeze. I replied that it only felt pleasant until you had to start riding directly into it. The Babe came up with the absolutely appropriate response when she remarked that she had felt really strong on the ride to that point.

After riding out with the wind and back into the wind for two straight days, I am prepared to say that back into the wind is fine for the novelty of the effect. But, it is way harder. Into the wind and back with the tailwind is just plain easier.

The corn looks pretty bad. The rain came too late to salvage the crop. The ears are shrunken and inadequate looking. The Babe is for scale but also you can see an ear of corn just off to the side of her left thigh. It is disappointing corn.In England yesterday Manchester United defeated Sunderland 1-0 which resonated loudly today when Aston Villa dumped Chelsea 2-0. Liverpool and Arsenal are even on points now atop the table, Liverpool leading on goal differential. Chelsea and Everton are also even on points but trailing by reason of having played one more league game to this point. ManU is 8th, 2 points adrift of Chelsea but also having played one game more than the league leader.

In Spain Oscar Freire captured stage 2 of the Vuelta and assumes the leader's gold jersey. Yesterday's leader Bennati was in a crash with 1.7km to go and finished well behind. They don't give time bonuses to the stage winners in the Vuelta so after 2 bunch sprint finishes the entire field has the same time. Freire is the leader by the tie breaker of placements. He has a first today and a second yesterday to surpass the results of any one else in the field. Tomorrow again features small climbs with a flat finish which may again produce a bunch sprint. Stage 4 seems certain to produce some gaps in the field, however, as it will have a mountaintop finish, a special category climb, the Vuelta's equivalent of the French "hors categorie".

LOOK at the Lake Vadnais sign

Boy, what a nice day! The temperature reached into the low 80s, not a cloud in the sky, no humidity, tolerable wind, boy what a nice day!

My sometimes Saturday riding companion found that her schedule works better for a Sunday ride so I was off by myself again. I had an interesting ride.

The wind was blowing from the south and that usually means heading south to ride the tailwind home. But south is the Fair and all that broken glass on the street so I headed out for the many lakes to the north. Here is yet another view of the often visited Lake Vadnais. This time you get a sign.The usual practice of riding into the wind means that usually when I reach the turn around point I am a bit knackered. The ride home is easier but enjoyment of the ride is sometimes soured just so very slightly by being already worn out. Today I rode with the wind at the start and it was E-A-S-Y. The ride home was hard but overall the ride was fun. I think I should mix it up a bit on a more regular basis.

The Vuelta began today and they just started right in racing. No prologue, no time trial, just a road stage with three small climbs. They started in Vigo and finished in the same town. The favorite of the crowds along the road seems to have been Oscar Freire of Rabobank who not only is Spanish, but apparently lives in Vigo. The other likely favorite would be Italian sprinter, Alessandro Petacchi, back in the peloton after not racing le Tour. Neither won although they came second and third, the winner was Italian Daniele Bennati of Lampre-Fondital. Bennati will race tomorrow in the gold jersey of the Vuelta race leader. Tomorrow is another road stage, with again only one small climb, the sort of stage that is likely to produce another bunch sprint finish (and no sorting out of the field).