Saturday, May 31, 2008

More records

The most obvious is a new record for most miles ridden in the month of May, eclipsing the previous mark set yesterday.

And we rode all the way out to Vadnais, a very honest effort by the Babe on her second ride of the year.Along the way we were paced for a bit by a deer running alongside. The deer seemed a bit confused to be out in civilization instead of back in the woods. We stopped to make sure the deer did not, in its confusion, decide to run us over. After a couple of false starts the deer seemed to get itself reoriented and it finally got started in the right direction, towards the woods, and we rode on.

So that was exciting. And then on the downhill to Snail Lake the Babe attained the highest speed she has ever ridden on a bicycle, 31mph. I asked her how she knew this. She admitted to peeking at the computer on the way down the hill. I counseled that at that speed she probably wants to keep her eyes on the road and check the statistics later.

The Giro has come down to the final stage, an individual time trial into Milano. Race leader Alberto Contador has over the brief time that he has been prominent in the sport excelled at the individual time trial. However, he has only a 4 second lead over Italian Riccardo Riccò of Saunier Duval. Further the time trial is relatively short at 28.5 kilometers meaning that any mechanical problem or a fall could prove decisive. Perhaps justice will yet prevail and an Italian will win the Giro d'Italia. Or perhaps not.

In baseball news, the Twins have obtained a second left handed pitcher for their bullpen staff. That means that one of the right handers had to be sent back to the minor league team in Rochester. The Twins announced after Thursday's game that right-handed reliever Bobby Korecky, Wireless's favorite player, was the player being sent down. Korecky was 1-0 with a 3.48 ERA in nine appearances for the Twins as a pitcher. He also leaves with a career batting average of 1.000. We were there and saw his hit.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Another milestone

As with most number compulsive bicyclists, I am usually unhappy with rain towards the end of the month. It is just one day, a ride missed, but those rides missed at the end of the month feel like a bigger loss. Usually at the end of the month I am working on some number or another, some number that the accumulation of rides over the entire month has brought into a sharper focus. This time, though, I am going to come right out and confess that after the hammerfest on Wednesday I almost gratefully accepted Thursday's rain showers. I needed a rest day.

I didn't need another one today. In the face of threatening skies I set out to try to get to that number that I have been obsessing over for the past couple of weeks, ever since it loomed as a possibility. And I got there, although, as the photo shows, just barely. I took the photo just after I got put my bike away in the garage.The dry spots are under the tree, the wet spots are only the beginning, it is now actually raining out there. I turned and headed for home at the first hint of wetness and, although I didn't get as many miles as I wanted, I got enough. And I didn't get wet.

The result? May 2008 goes down as the May in which I recorded the highest number of miles ever recorded as having been ridden in any month of May.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Hammer fest

The corn has been planted. I rode past the corn field yesterday and today. I have been keeping a pretty close eye on what is going on over there. Today there is clear evidence that was not there yesterday of a wheeled vehicle having gone up and down the field in the manner in which a planter of a row crop would be traveling. The corn has been planted.

Today was a nicer day with a slight south wind. On south wind days I usually ride over to the river. On a nice day at the river RACER BOY was out and about, IN FORCE. Racer boy is pretty obnoxious but there is one aspect of the river ride that I like and it is obviously what keeps me coming back.

The ride at the river features long stretches where I can ride without having to stop. A negative factor is that I ride that direction when the wind is from the south so the ride out is into the wind. However, the topography along the river road is favorable for going that direction even against the wind and I always seem to ride pretty fast.

Today was no exception. Racer boy and RACER GIRL zipped past me shortly after I had completed the climb from the Marshall Avenue bridge up to Saint Thomas. First racer boy wordlessly passed just after the turn towards the monument at the foot of Summit Avenue. Very shortly thereafter, at the beginning of the actual downhill, racer girl gave a minimalist verbal indication of her presence and also passed. I take some pride in the fact that they still don't usually dust me off on the uphill. It is usually at the top of the hill when I take some time to gather myself that they, instead of having to recover, instantly accelerate and easily leave me behind. But today I felt pretty strong and the downhill helped me get quickly back up to speed. I found myself hanging fairly even with that duo albeit a half block or so behind as they played out their game of bicycling dominance. Eventually racer girl dusted racer boy on a slightly uphill section and he was unable to gain anything back from then on. She was the real deal, strong and fast.

I rode on to the Ford Dam overlook where I made my turn around, pausing briefly to obtain this photo of a hydro electic turbine:There is a plaque on the other side of the turbine that says: "This is one of four turbines Ford Motor Company installed 1924 at the hydro electric plant located below this lookout. The turbines were replaced between 1992 and 1994 after 70 years of service. This one water driven turbine produced over 1,341,776,000 kilowatt hours (KWH) of electricity in its liftime. This offset the burning of 286,000 tons of coal and avoided 470,000 pounds of particulates, 4,589,000 pounds of sulphur dioxide and 5,340,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide." The turbine is cast iron, weighs 15 tons, had a rotation speed of 100 rpm and a rating of 4.500 horsepower.

Yes, that number is over 1 BILLION KWH of electricity. Pretty impressive, eh?

I checked my average speed before I started back and it confirmed what I felt, that I had ridden pretty fast up to that point. If I finished at that rate it would be the ride with the fastest average speed of the year to date. So I was aware of that and then on the way back I also now had the advantage of a tailwind. But I also had that daunting climb out of the river gorge before I could head back towards home. Still the wind kept giving me encouraging boosts. I checked average speed again just before the big climb and it was still pretty good.

That climb is TOUGH.

But I got out of the gorge and started towards the industrial area, a mostly cross wind ride. I crossed University and for the first time since the climb I turned fully with the wind. I was pleased to find that I had recovered pretty well from the climb and I started to ride fast. And kept on riding fast all the way home.

Eventually I checked the average speed again and discovered that I was in territory not visited recently so I started to work at it. I rode the last 8 or 10 miles for average speed, at all times working hard, hammering, trying to keep my speed at high as possible.

And it is truly a landmark.

I had to open up my spread sheet bike logs and start checking. I discovered that today I achieved the highest average speed that I have recorded since July 27, 2005. That was the day of TRAM 2005 that featured the ride downhill with a strong tailwind to Two Harbors. That day I recorded an astonishing (for me) 16mph average on a 78 mile ride. I had to check even a bit further to find a regular ride day where I exceeded today's average but I didn't have to check much further, as I had a two days faster than today in early July 2005 while I was riding preparation for TRAM 2005. That makes today's ride my fastest in almost three years.

I felt strong, I felt fast.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Rules of Prey

I am going to stop complaining about May in about 4 or 5 more days. It was 59 today when I left for my ride. This needless to say, is subpar. On the other hand it hasn't been very wet and the cold doesn't keep me from riding.

The ride was fun and I ended up probably riding a little bit farther than I should have. I got home after the optimum time. As a result I was late and missed most of the discussion with the best selling author but I was on time for the book signing. He had already signed a copy of his new hardcover for Wireless last week. This time we asked for a signature on our copy of "Rules of Prey", the first in the Prey series.Even though it has been read by at least 4 or 5 people the paperback is in pretty good condition. And yes, we knew he was holding the book upside down. While we were waiting for our moment we noticed that he does that with everyone. A little Pulitzer Prize winner best selling author personality quirk.

TOPWLH reports that when asked why he stopped writing for the newspaper he replied that he believed that everyone should make enough money to be able to send their children to the University of Minnesota. As do most state universities, the UofM features relative bargain tuition. I therefore believe that he was saying that the newspaper business did not pay enough. I sincerely doubt whether he is having a similar experience with his current gig.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Stone overcast

After a single day of summer, punctuated at the end of the day by our first round of violent summer storms, today dawned sunny but crisp. As the morning progressed even the sunny part went away as a heavy, dense overcast descended. The weather was fine for biking and I did, but only with a return of the jacket. The sun never made even the slightest appearance during my ride and in the subpar light conditions I declined each and every photo opportunity.

But I had scanned this. I have heard that this may not be its only appearance on the web but I haven't checked JQ's site yet so I do not know for sure whether it has been posted or not.Pictured at the Anderson homestead, photo circa 1941 or 2: Foreground left, clockwise to right: Tom and Lillie Miller, Marvin Anderson, Leona and Al Hoffman. The object of the rapt attention of Leona and Al is the oldest cousin, Anita Hoffman.

The Giro continues to descend into the morass. Today's stage was short, but difficult. It was an uphill time trial, a single climb, of 12.9km, averaging 8.4 percent. The route started out easy, but riders paid for that near the top, where portions of the climb hit a whopping 24 percent.

Part of this route was on gravel roads and that involved the steepest parts. The first half of the course covered a steep, paved section which climbed nearly 500 vertical meters with ramps as steep as 16 percent, and that's the easy part!

Near the top the route followed 5km of narrow forest road winding to a mountain-top finish. The gravel section of this road rose nearly 600 vertical feet.

An early finisher criticized the route, saying, "This is just a spectacle. This isn't road racing. This is mountain biking."

Race leader Contador continues to ride much better than anyone can believe possible, as today he takes fourth, adding time to his advantage over all of the GC contenders except Simoni, who finishes third, 5 seconds better. All of this from a guy who 6 days before the start was relaxing on the beach in Spain, not training. All of this from a guy who is not even in peak condition. Imagine how much of a farce the race would be if he were actually in shape.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Horticulture

We had rain overnight. This morning was warm but muggy and overcast, feeling very much like rain. By about 2pm it became apparent that the window of opportunity was going to stay open for at least a couple more hours so I went out.

The lilacs are in full bloom. The streets with lots of lilac bushes are a spectacular sensory experience, visual and olfactory.

I noticed these in the extreme southwestern area of that part of Como Park that is east of Lexington, which is to say, not the picnic and zoo part of the park but the part of the park that is near the lake.Upon consideration I doubt seriously if city staff is responsible for this display as these are nowhere near either maintenance headquarters or the more traditional show areas of the park. Rather I suspect that this is the result of some sort of amateur horticultural experiment by one of the neighbors. What we have here is branches which produce white lilacs grafted onto the bushes which produce the traditional lilac colored flowers. I examined the bushes closely enough to know that there are not separate white producing bushes. Those white flowers and the lilac colored flowers are both part of the same plant.

In other horticultural news our apple tree has produced blossoms! Not very many blossoms, but blossoms.This is significant because this particular tree has only produced one apple that we are aware of in the 15 or so years that it has been part of the back yard scene. Although not exactly covered with blossoms the tree this year unmistakably has what Wireless correctly described as "dozens" of blossoms.This closeup was taken by Wireless.

Here she is leaving, taking her bike with her on the new bike rack, a Saris Bones RS. We watched the installation video and then installed the rack on her car and I must say that rack is absolutely rock solid.If the results are as successful as I think they most likely have to be I will be offering a qualified endorsement of this product. It looks to be as good as advertised.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Another bike geek moment

I call this one Causenteeny.Other available bike geek for scale.

We rode a bit and discovered that the bicycle computer was STILL underreporting mileage. My solution was another classic moment of bike geekdom. I performed a repair using spare parts that I had lying around. I switched to a Sigma 800 which has always been reliable for me and once again find myself to be a very self satisfied bike geek.

Lyon has defeated Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in extra time to claim la Coupe de France. The schedule for Ligue 1 for next year has been released and Nantes will open August 9 at Auxerre. For a bit of perspective Auxerre was 15th in Ligue 1 this year and looks to be the kind of team from which Nantes must take points to succeed in the return to the elite.

The Giro today saw its first mountaintop finish and Contador moved up to just 5 seconds off the overall lead. This smells very bad to me.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Major bike geek moment

I had co-riders today. Santini is in town to attend a family funeral. She needed a few miles to defeat the ravages of travel. TOPWLH was also convinced to make her season debut. TOPWLH gave lie to the old adage about you never forget how to ride a bicycle by completely forgetting how to shift. Shifting, however, is easily and quickly re-taught and we were soon on the road.

Roseville was spectacularly pretty today. We stopped at the top of a hill for this photo. The guy who lives in the house was putting stuff in his car and Bianchi Babe inquired if it was alright to enter his yard for the photo. She then set out to make friends with him. She does this because she is incorrigibly gregarious. She discovered that they intended for this to happen, having themselves planted the four flowering crabapple trees which were today in spectacular bloom.Babes for scale.

The only problem with the ride was that Santini discovered that the bicycle computer on the Bianchi Eros was underreporting miles traveled. This is a problem that has to be solved.

Upon arriving home I got out the manual and prepared to recalibrate. The manual has standard size information but did not have the exact calibration number for the tire size on the Eros, a 700x25. I had replaced the battery on that computer since the last time serious miles were ridden on that bike and I remembered that I had made an extrapolation from the numbers that were available, 2124 for 700x26, and 2170 for 700x38. The extrapolation seemed correct but it was producing a serious mileage and speed computation error.

This called for a roll out. Roll out is how really, really serious bike geeks determine the calibration number for their bike computers. You mark a spot, roll the bike tire one circumference, measure the distance in millimeters and that is your calibration number. Obviously you have to be a serious geek to engage in this sort of activity.

But with the able assistance of the other serious bike geek in attendance I went out in the driveway and did a roll out. I only had an inch tape measure but I knew the conversion for inches to millimeters. The roll out distance was 83 5/8 inches, almost 8 feet. Who knew, 8 feet! When converted to millimeters this comes to 2124, the number given in the computer manual for 700x26 tires.

Whoa, major bike geek moment. We successfully determined that the tires labeled as 700x25 are in fact 700x26. With this information now in hand the bike computer was successfully recalibrated.

I pronounce myself to be an extremely self-satisfied bike geek. And, it was a totally bloggable moment.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Two big bugs

On a very nice day I got an early start and took the 8 lakes tour.

I wanted to get this photo last year but the wind and/or the temperatures must have conspired against me or something and I was never at this location during the flowering crab bloom. This is Snail Lake Boulevard off Victoria on the way down to the lake.Can you tell that it is a steep downhill? This is the spot where the bicycle computer almost always registers its highest speed of the ride.

It was again slightly below par in temperature but it was a very nice day anyway. The lakes were all gorgeous. I already had the picture above and did not intend to try for another.

But I stopped briefly at Lake Vadnais and the lake was looking particularly fine.I had two bug collisions today. I have several each year, often of big hard shelled bugs colliding with my sun glasses. Today the bugs were both big but on these occasions the sun glasses did not have to serve their protective armor function. One of the bugs flew into my left ear but then quickly flew out. I was disconcerted by its arrival, very pleased by the expeditious departure. The other bug nailed me hard in the neck. Again, disconcerting but no actual damage.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

1,022

If you set out to ride 4,000 miles in a calendar year the best approach is 1,000 miles before Memorial Day, 2,000 miles between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and !,000 miles after Labor Day. With today's ride the first part has now been accomplished.

The newspaper has reported that corn planting is picking up speed. I was riding past the corn field while tilling was going on.Last year I missed this step and was never sure if the minimum tillage was done at the same time as the planting. Now I know that it is not. Today was tillage, that implement on the back of the tractor does not include planting gear. I suspect that tomorrow is planting.

I have been presented with some extremely interesting information about the much photographed Minnehaha Falls. This shot from below the falls was taken recently by Wireless and has been shamelessly appropriated from her Flickr site.She asked me a question about some geology deal there and I had to seek assistance from the geology guy at work. The geology guy loves his rocks and when you ask him a question about rocks you don't get an answer, you get a seminar. I asked if Wireless's "Limestone" photo was actually limestone or something else. I not only got the correct answer (Saint Peter sandstone) I got a link to everything you might ever want to know about the Minnehaha Falls watershed including lots of information about geology. There are further links in the document to other interesting bits about the Falls. I found it all very interesting, I hope someone else does too.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

More flowering trees

I have been informed by telephone and by TOPWLH that Wireless got in her first ride today. She called while I was riding so I called her back when I got home. I troubleshot her non-functioning bicycle computer by telephone (spoke magnet adjustment). We will have to watch her blog to see if this truly is a bloggable event.

On my ride I saw the tall bike guy and he is working on another bike. This one is a recumbent of sorts but it doesn't resemble your average recumbent any more than his tall bike resembles a regular cruiser. This recumbent looks like he is welding it together himself and it most resembles the type of customized motorcycle generally referred to as a chopper. It has the high bars which used to be called ape hangers and a rider posture which is reminiscent of the Hells Angels. The tall bike guy is an interesting character.

It was extremely windy but I rode out into the wind. Today this took me on the more or less regular route to the north. I passed this driveway. There used to be some sort of church headquarters and residence down at the end but I guess they have closed up shop and moved. The flowering crabs stayed behind.The order is trying to sell the property with the most recent development proposal I heard being for a medium rise condo development. *sigh* Well, at least there is one good side to the mortgage foreclosure crisis, at least some of these more questionable development projects are at least temporarily onto the back burner.

This is the same yard where I photographed the first flowering shrub to appear here this year. Today I noticed that they are amply prepared for the loss of the flowers on that first tree.Good for them, where they used to have white, they now have purple. And pretty handsome purple at that.

Today in Italy Alberto Contador finished second in the first individual time trial of the Giro and moved himself into a position from which I think he is going to win the Giro. This is a good result for a guy who broke a bone in his elbow just a couple of days ago. The broken bone was thought to possibly be a problem because it was in a spot where it would affect Contador's time trial position. This smells worser and worser.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Laundry in vain

Yesterday I organized all my winter bike gear and ran it all through the washer and dryer. I optimistically assumed that I would not need the full sleeve base layer, the long sleeve jersey, the tights and the various gloves and mittens.

Guess what?

I wore all of the above except the gloves and added a jacket as well to cope with temperatures in the 50s. My observation is this, however: Last week it was cold and sunny and it felt like a really nice day for early April. Today the sun is so high in the sky that it is unmistakably nearing summer. It felt like an unseasonably cool day in May. I was dressed for it and had a nice ride. I was amused to see many persons out getting some exercise while clearly dressed for Friday. Friday was 80, today was 55. The people who I saw wearing shorts and a sleeveless top just cannot possibly have been warm enough. As for me, I will be running quite a bit of that stuff through the wash again before summer is officially declared to be present.

Today was the long ride and I must admit that actually going somewhere is a lot more fun than riding in circles. I got all the way to the lakes and noticed this view of the Lake Vadnais twin. It framed up nicely so I took a picture.The guide and I were over to County Cycles yesterday to get her a couple of things that she needed to get a bicycle on the road. She asked about this sign and the truth is I have always meant to get a photo. I am pretty sure about this but have no independent confirmation. The signs are still along the tracks in the place where they were placed back when the railroads were the only way to get around. The signs were markers for the train crews. When I worked at the Great Northern signs such as this in the urban core identified junctions (e.g. Minneapolis Junction, Union Yards) and as you moved out from the core the signs identified the location of suburban stations. This is along what was the Soo Line main line (that part I know to be true) and I believe that it identifies the spot where the Roseville Station was located.I know I promised yesterday that French football discussion was being suspended but apparently I lied. There is one game left in the season, Olympique Lyonnais will meet Paris Saint Germain on Saturday at Stade de France for La Coupe de France. Both teams will be going for a double as Lyon has been crowned Ligue 1 champion for the 7th consecutive year while PSG has already captured the League Cup.

Then, and only then, will football turn towards Euro 2008, the European championships. The news here is that France coach Raymond Domenech has named a provisional 30-man squad for the tournament but Juventus striker David Trezeguet is not among the players listed. Trezeguet won the 1998 FIFA World Cup with France, and in the 2000 European Championship scored the golden goal in the final against Italy to give France the title. He also played for France in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups and Euro 2004. Trezeguet was named one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in 2004. His omission from the team comes as a surprise to many but could perhaps be foretold by World Cup 2006 when coach Domenech showed a clear preference for Franck Ribéry in the spot formerly occupied by Trezeguet.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

LOOK passes Axis

I waited around all morning expecting for a little warmer weather to ride in. Apparently 55 is no longer warm enough for me either. Eventually it warmed but as it did I noted when I checked the weather websites that the forecast for 1pm was "Thunderstorm".

Because I am truly insane I went out anyway. It wasn't actually raining so I decided to get at least a couple of miles by circling the neighborhood.

I just opened up Google Earth for a little ride analysis. I did a little fooling around with the "ruler" and found that the maximum crow flies distance I got from home was 1.4 miles at which point I was most direct street route home 2.1 miles from home. And I kept at it. On three occasions I felt a drop and immediately turned and bolted for home. On each occasion as I neared home the threat passed.

26 miles.

The sun broke through a couple of times. This was actually my second lap past these trees. On the first time past it was grey and overcast but I said to myself that I could pass here again when the sun was out and get a picture.And I did. The vaguely not yet blossomed purple stuff in the middle there is lilacs. Lilacs are not quite there yet but they are clearly very close to bursting forth with the annual display of color and that wonderful lilac smell.

Today's mileage moves the LOOK past my winter bike and into the lead for miles ridden so far this year. I am always a bit surprised at how long this takes every year as it never feels at the time I am doing it that I am actually getting that many miles on the Axis.

In France today, Paris Saint Germain has escaped relegation with a 2-1 victory at Sochaux on the final day of the Ligue 1 season. Lens will go down instead. In Ligue 2, Nantes tied Reims and finished second. Le Havre and Nantes are joined on the promotion list by Grenoble which will be making its third appearance ever in the top league and its first since 1962, a run of 45 years outside the elite. Paris FC faded to 10th in the 3rd league and missed promotion. Carquefou has 2 games remaining in its season but has moved up a couple of spots in the standings and has much improved its chances of avoiding relegation from its classification. Discussion of French ligue football is hereby suspended until at least August.

That bicycle race in Italy still hasn't gone up any hills of particular magnitude and won't until at least Wednesday. Tomorrow is pan flat, Monday is a rest day, Tuesday is a time trial. With no climbing there is no drama and it remains not very interesting from here. Cycling News reports, however, that Italian television coverage of yesterday's stage was watched by 18% of Italian TV viewers so at least they are finding it interesting. Perhaps they are captivated that Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is maintaining a position near the overall race lead despite not having trained properly as his team was not invited until the last minute. Today's stage winner Riccardo Riccò referred to Contador in post-stage comments yesterday.

He said after the stage, "You are not able to go so strong with such short number of days of training." It appears that there are doubts within the peloton about young Mr. Contador.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Belated inspiration

If you were riding into Pigeon River park with former President Clinton just as the workmen scared away the ducks you could exclaim, "Seville, dere dego".

Also experiencing a belated inspiration is the blossoming shrubbery of the nearby neighborhoods. I don't know the names of many of these but I think this purple display is nice.Today was even nicer than yesterday, another new high reached. As I type this the weather gadget on my blog reports 80. I finished my ride about 3 hours ago so I don't think I rode in 80, but today it is 80. Today I rode in sleeveless jersey, obviously for the first time. Today it is 80.

And vanity, where is they sting? Earlier today I was engaged in an activity which every serious bicyclist who tells the truth will admit they also engage in. I was checking out the definition in my quadriceps . . . and my calves . . . and my hamstring . . . and gluteus. The season is definitely well underway as I am pleased to report that I have my legs back. The hard work is starting to pay off.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

What "subpar" means

Here's a definition from something called dictionary.com:

par /pɑr/ –noun
an average, usual, or normal amount, degree, quality, condition, standard, or the like

Yesterday was a subpar day. It was a beautiful day, I think I said that. It was also quite definitely subpar.

It might have been 68 at the A&W but the official high temperature, taken at the place which is responsible for compiling average, usual or normal high temperature, was recorded at 65. The average, or some might say, "par" for the day was 70.

Subpar is below average which might be good in golf. But for nearly every other activity, subpar is just not quite good enough.

Cue the music (I recommend right click on "music" and "Open link in a new tab", then let it run in the background):

Following golf course photo provided for diversion only:OK, everyone back now?

I believe that is a famous song in France, by the way, something about "It rains in Nantes". Having visited the city both TOPWLH and I can vouch for that as can the Guide who has, of course, lived there.

But anyway, 65 on a day when the average is 70 is, just plain is, subpar, totally without regard to what the definition of is is.

Today, on the other hand, was finally the first day of Spring. It felt warm, it was warm, above the average for the day, very acceptable wind, just a really, really, nice day. Totally above par.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Onojo, demis trux.

I had a revelation while riding today which I am going to share. Unfortunately, I suspect that it is not going to be very profound. But here it is:

A rest day makes you really strong the following day.

In addition, today was a really nice day. It was sunny with medium winds. The temperature at the A&W was 68. I think this makes this the warmest temperature I have ridden in so far this year. The negative of course is that the average temperature for today is 70. So a really nice day but still, still sub-par.

I never noticed before but the A&W has those outdoor park and order from your car deals along the fence. I watched for a bit though, and I did not see the high school girl actually roller skating out to bring the tray of food to the car.So it is just a tiny bit inauthentic.

If you can read the sign you will learn that this establishment will soon be sponsoring old car "cruising" nights. I suppose that a retro sort of restaurant is a natural for a gathering of retro sort of cars.

And along those same lines, I call this "Causenflours innaroe".The Giro d'Italia is so far refusing to become interesting. The race hasn't really begun as each stage so far has finished in a bunch sprint. Even today when the stage ended with a 3 km long climb at an average gradient of 5.9%, but with 9% at the end, even in the face of an obstacle that should have separated the field, the peloton still finished gruppo compacto. It looks as though the race will not begin until the mountain stages of the 3rd week.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Too windy

But actually it was a pretty nice day. It was seasonable, temperature reaching to within a few degrees of average high for the day, sunny, all in all a pretty nice day.

But it was windy. It was too windy.

I rode into the wind over to the river. This is probably one of the last days for shooting the river through the trees. This foliage is about to close this view of the river off completely.A careful examination might provide a glimpse in there of the Lake Street Bridge. The photograph was taken from the bank above the Meeker Island historic site just inside the Saint Paul city limits, facing downstream.

In looking at yesterday's post it struck me that I left out a key detail of the morning brunch with the three generations. I cannot believe I forgot to mention this because it is important to note that nobody got any syrup on their phone.Nantes, le 12 mai 2008. Le dernier match de la saison face à Guingamp a été l'occasion pour Nantes de célébrer la remontée.

Nearly 26,000 were in attendance today as Nantes played their final home game, the final game in la Beaujoire as a Ligue 2 side. All in attendance were in the mood for a party and they took to the lawn immediately upon the conclusion of the game. The celebration is of the return to the elite of French football.

I recommend watching the Nantes website report of reactions. There is a bit too much of guys discussing football but there are several excellent crowd shots.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mothers' Day to TOPWLH

TOPWLH bracketed herself for Mothers' Day, having brunch with her dafter AND her mother. The dafter is a most excellent child and actually the mother is pretty swell too. And TOPWLH. I went for a bicycle ride.

Here in Minnesota we have firmly established that fishing opener occurs the day before Mothers' Day. This means that when I rode past the various lakes on the northern route that there were lots more people in the parks than there were last week and most of them were fishing. Here is an image of Sucker Lake, the usual northernmost point of the 8 lakes tour.People are fishing.

It rained yesterday, really rained which meant that today was the long ride. The long ride took me to places beyond the normal beaten path which enabled me to get a photo of the last or at least nearly last unpictured of the Minnesota Rocks sculptures.This one is at Vadnais Heights City Hall. It seems to me that this one has a bit more elaborate staging than most of the others. For example, the city has ringed the limestone sculpture with nice granite benches, two of which are visible in the photo.

Yesterday in the Giro Christian Vande Velde added himself to the list of Americans who have ever held the leader's jersey in one of the Grand Tours when his Slipstream team won the team time trial and team leader David Millar slipped off the back of the team at the finish to allow Vande Velde to be first across the line. Despite his quite Dutchy sort of name, Vande Velde is an American, born in Illinois. But it is after all, the tour of Italy and today in the first road stage the first five finishers were all Italians and one of them, fourth place finisher Franco Pellizotti of Team Liquigas, gained enough time to take over the lead in the general classification and the Maglia Rosa by a single second over the American.

In French football yesterday, Paris Saint Germain gained a point in the standings by securing a tie at home against Saint Etienne. Relegation rivals Lens and Toulouse were both on the road and both lost as PSG edged up to 16th overall and out of the relegation zone with one game remaining. PSG, RC Lens, and Toulouse FC are all major clubs in France and one of them going down is nearly as shocking a result for this season as last year's relegation of Nantes.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Giro d'Italia

The news reports are that the cold weather is affecting planting. Certainly the corn field near me has not been planted. A close examination shows that there has been no equipment of any kind in the field since last fall.The Giro d'Italia begins tomorrow. The first 3 stages will be on the Isle of Sicily including tomorrow's seldom run team time trail which will be staged beginning in Palermo.

In a last minute decision the race organizers disinvited one of the previously invited minor Italian teams and invited instead Astana, the team of Tour de France winner Alberto Contador as well as Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden, and former Discovery Channel and US Postal team director Johann Bruyneel. It will be interesting to see if Contador can produce anything approaching his form at last year's Tour. Failure to do so will lead some, including me, to conclude that he is not able to reproduce his last year's form because he rode last year's Tour dirty, every bit as dirty as the disgraced race leader, Michael Rasmussen. On a related note, last year's Giro featured another young rider who mirrored Contador's later success by climbing much better than expected and producing overall results which were completely unexpected. Andy Schleck ended up on the podium, finishing second. Second is where it appeared Contador was going to finish in le Tour before the race leader was DQ'ed. Schleck is not entered in the Giro this year. Very curious, fast rising young star, second in last year's race but is not able to make his team's start list this year.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

More whining about the cold spring

They kept me very busy today at work meaning that I barely had time to check the weather radar. But I am a bicyclist so barely time to check the weather radar mean I only checked it 3 times. At my morning break it was apparent that there was a large storm in southwestern Minnesota which appeared to be moving this way. At noon it hadn't moved and by afternoon break it had started to fall apart. It has reorganized itself but in so doing it has taken a more southern track and has passed to the south of the city. So I got to ride. But as has been the case all along it was about 10 degrees below average temperature and overcast.

It still has not been warm. I rode today in long sleeves and a jacket with leg warmers, and an under helmet skull cap. One of the joys of riding is that it gives me lots of time to think about stuff. One of the joys of keeping a bike log is that it gives me stuff to think about.

Monday will be May 12th, one and two-fifths of the way through the 7 month season, one-fifth of the available riding. Today I got my 32nd ride, one-fifth of the goal. I am short of one-fifth of the miles but average miles per ride will increase over the summer. With my 32nd ride today I actually think I am in pretty good shape for the mileage goals.

But I have not yet ridden in 70 degree temperature. I have ridden in shorts several times but today I backtracked to leg warmers. I have ridden in short sleeves once and one other time I pushed the arm warmers down but today I backtracked to long sleeves and a jacket. I am still wearing the layer underneath the helmet to keep my head warm. I am going to keep whining until the day I am out there in sleeveless jersey with head bare under the helmet and running with sweat.

This is the same tree pictured on May 1 as the first flowers I saw this season.It still hasn't been warm and the first flowers are already leaving, never having seen a warm day.

And then there's this as reported today in the Star Tribune:

"The late, cold spring did more than try the patience of Minnesotans: It killed scores of songbirds in the northern two-thirds of the state.

Since last week, state Department of Natural Resources officials have received many reports of dead swallows, bluebirds, kinglets, sparrows, robins and warblers.

They apparently starved to death because of a lack of insects caused by cold weather and late-April snow. The large-scale bird die-off, which has ebbed now that the weather has warmed, was unusual, officials said.

Snow was the final blow.

The cold spring meant that migrating songbirds found few insects when they arrived. The final blow probably came when a foot or more of snow hit northern Minnesota on April 25 and 26.

The Brainerd area got 6 to 8 inches, North said, but much more fell farther north. Insect-eating birds simply couldn't find food, and starved."

I'll have a little cheese with this whine please.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Early start

Looking out the window today it seemed too nice out to stay at work so I broke away a tad early and rode my bike. Appearances are deceiving. It WAS a nice day, but temperatures seemed to stall just below the average for the date. The still not quite warm temperature coupled with another strong north wind to produce another day when I stepped back into the house to don my jacket and later was glad that I had.

With the early start I had plenty of time to stop and look at things. This is a picture of the often mentioned but I don't believe ever previously photographed Lake Wabasso. It is across the street from Lake Owasso, smaller, connected by a creek.I started to climb the hill out of the Owasso valley and discovered that the street along the west side of the lake which had been under construction nearly all of last year has finally been opened. There is still another layer of asphalt to go but the base layer is down and it is smooth and rideable.

When the route up the hill next to the lake is taken the usual outlet brings me directly to Lake Emily. Lake Emily HAS been photographed before but today I caught the glistening waters visible through a gnarly oak.I stopped and watched a little junior varsity softball, Roseville against Stillwater. Stillwater has a bunch of hitters, they were pounding the ball, scoring several runs in the inning I watched. Then Roseville came up and went 1-2-3, leading to the line-up for hand shakes.

Today in France Lyon advanced to the final of la Coupe de France. They will meet Paris Saint Germain on May 24 at Stade de France for the Cup. Lyon also still leads Ligue 1 as they seek their 7th consecutive championship so they still have the possibility of playing for a double, two trophies in the same season, la Coupe and le Championnat. PSG also will be seeking a double, having earlier won la Coupe de la Ligue. As we all know by now, the last team to win the league championship other than Lyon was . . . anyone? Bueller? anyone? . . . Nantes.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Very late start

I got away from labor much later than usual today which resulted in a ride against the clock. And against the thermometer.

It was warm and sunny most of the day with predicted highs at or above the average high and perhaps even approaching 70. It never quite made either of those levels. It was about 65 when I headed out.

I have so far this year resisted the impulse to rush into summer costumes. Today I rode in shorts but with both a base layer and a jersey on top, and with arm warmers. I briefly considered a jacket and with 2 miles to go when I turned into the now shaded neighborhood and into the wind I was not warm enough. I wished for the jacket but only 2 miles to go, I sucked it up and am now trying not to whine about it.

One of my neighbors had an extremely traumatic moment which I witnessed. They have a downhill driveway onto a lightly traveled street and two pre-schoolers. The slightly older was on his bike with training wheels but is not yet old enough to have mastered the concept of brakes. The younger was in a stroller which of course does not feature rider operated brakes. Dad was holding the stroller when the bike started to roll out into the street, directly into the path of an SUV. The father released the stroller, which of course, set it to rolling towards the street and with a panicky cry of "NO!" dashed after the bike.

Fortunately the SUV was traveling at an appropriate speed for a light traffic back street and the driver was alert. She had no trouble stopping with at least a car length to spare. The bicycle arriving next on the scene also came to a halt as we allowed the traumatized family to reconfigure themselves into a single group.

With the late start I did not stop anywhere for a photo. This shot is from my driveway just after the ride.Soccer has broken out. And there is a sunset of sorts. The state of the sky with clouds obscuring the sunset shows why it was that it was getting cool as I approached home.

Recovery ride for the most part, but I had a couple of decent moments. For example, I felt strong on the uphill portion of Como by the Fairgrounds.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

3 bottles AND sunscreen

Today the weather cooperated with temperatures actually reaching nearly to the average high for the date. This is so unusual in this Mini-Ice Age of a spring that a huge crowd of once or twice a year cyclists turned out for their annual (or perhaps semi-annual) ride.

For example, I met my first salmon of the year. She was furiously pedalling in her granny up a hill in the Park. In such situations I insist upon my right to keep to the right. She figured that part out fairly readily and swung out from the curb to allow me passage as near as possible to the curb on my right, the lawful side of the street, but showed no indication that she was going to conform to the law herself by returning to the opposite side of the street. I can't change them but I can and do insist that they allow me to do it right.

I also won my first race of the year. As I crossed the industrial zone which is the transition between the city and the suburb a quite a large bit younger than I am guy on a comfort bike was coming up the street from my right. I was somewhat surprised a couple of blocks later when he barreled past me pedaling furiously. He wasn't the first person to pass me today, or the last, but he was the one who got about ten bike lengths in front of me and then slowed down. He hung out there alternately surging and sagging as we continued along. I admit this piqued my interest. We turned at the next available left and began an about four-tenths of a mile back into the wind before turning back onto the route which crosses the railroad tracks. Into the wind the leader started to sag badly. I admit it, I was weak, I yielded to the dark side. I picked up the pace just a tad and gave him a hearty "Nice day, eh?" as I blew past.

It was such a nice day that I applied sunscreen before I left home and ended up consuming 3 bottle of water. I wanted sunscreen because I knew it was going to be a long ride. There has not been enough sun yet this year to build up any protective coloration and with the sun already as high in the sky as it is, I felt sunscreen was called for. It was a long ride, here is the turnaround point at the curling club, about 16 miles into the ride.Closed circuit to those who know: Obviously it isn't 16 miles from where I live to the curling club. However, it is 16 miles if you follow the route I followed.

It was a long ride because I need a long ride every week. Last year I never really trained for anything and as a result I ended the year really untrained for just about everything. I have commented before that I was not satisfied with my fitness level. So this year I am training for something. Training means gradually ratcheting up the level of effort, gradually increasing the length of the rides. Today I rode 34 miles. I hope to ride 40 sometime before the end of the month, 50 by the middle of July and my age in miles before the end of the summer.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Cold and windy

The sky was beautiful and if viewed from indoors today looked quite nice. But it was only about 49 when I headed out, on its way to 54. The wind was 18 from NNW with gusts in excess of 25. This qualifies as cold and windy. It was a beautiful day for early March, not quite as nice for early May.

But still, it was acceptable riding weather, a perfectly acceptable day. And it was gorgeous.

The Vadnais gate was standing wide open so I rode on down. At this point the wind was from behind me. Downhill and tailwind, I didn't have to pedal much as I made my way to the picnic area usual stopping spot. There were not any fisherpersons present today so I could ride out to the end of the point for a photo op.I was torn between tilting the camera up to photograph the beautiful blue sky or tilting it down to photograph the beautiful blue lake.

I have two pretty good cold and windy at Vadnais stories. In the first, as I was putting the camera away and reconfiguring my costume (zippers and gloves mostly) a large American car pulled into the parking lot with a grey haired couple of Americans on board. They chose kind of an odd place to park, directly in front of the Porta-potties, which led me to believe that they were not regulars. They had chosen to take advantage of the beautiful looking conditions to get in a walk at an undeniably scenic spot. They piled out of the car and turned towards the wind to start the walk. They didn't even make it out of the parking lot. The wife got about 3 car lengths away from the car but I don't believe the husband ever even cleared the rear fender. Boom, back in the car, fired it up and drove away. It was cold and windy.

The second story is that as I continued on my way I had to ride across the south end of the lake. The wind was howling down the length of the lake. The wind was blowing so hard that I had to lean into it to keep from being blown over. Let me repeat, I had to lean my bicycle over to 4 or 5 degrees off upright to keep from being blown over. It was windy.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Hooray, hooray

Hooray, hooray!
The first of May.
For almost everyone who considers themselves to be a bicyclist
Outdoor biking
Starts today.

It was sunny and gorgeous until about midday. Then the gloom descended bringing down with it predictions of rain ranging up to 70 percent for tonight. At midafternoon I glumly logged onto the net to gauge my chances. Mikey J kept showing a radar loop with a storm evident in South Dakota but which storm couldn't muster any organization this far east. The satellite loop showed clouds trying to mass but mostly failing. By the time I got home the only place that it looked like rain was outside. Only very, very rarely have I headed out of the garage into conditions so obviously threatening. But Mikey J was correct. Night has fallen, the ride has been completed, and still no rain. A victory for modern technology.

So with a day so completely overcast and grey it was hard to find an appropriate image to capture. But riding through the neighborhood east of Hamline I came abruptly onto my first floral display of the season.The tree also smelled really good.

Shortly thereafter I had traffic roles reinforced for me in a way which left me feeling queasy. I stop at 4 way stop signs, preferring to play the role of vehicle. I put my foot down and wait my turn to go, hoping that by respecting car rules the cars will respect me. This works really well but I also do it because once several years ago I stopped at a 4 way and a blue haired old lady in a blue Ford coming across in front of me completely blew the sign. I had a good view as she passed from my right to left and she showed absolutely zero recognition of the sign. It wasn't just me, there was a car sitting across the intersection from me also waiting for the blue Ford to stop. The driver of the second car and I exchanged incredulous glances and then went on our separate ways.

Today I stopped at the 4 way at Garden and Fernwood. I put my foot down and waited for the cross traffic to stop. This time it was a young woman in a green minivan but she just cruised right through.

I stop at 4 way stop signs to make sure that I do not become a hood ornament.

In recognition of theme day here's a number that I saw today:Very few bicyclists are ever going to see that number on the odometer.