Our version of catch and release.

We rode a little different route today. We rode first to Turtle Lake in Shoreview. Once last year when we were at Vadnais the incorrigibly gregarious person who once per week rides with me (IGPWOPWRWM?) lapsed into a conversation with the perhaps inebriated fisherman at the Vadnais parking lot. He recommended (who asked?) the fishing at Turtle Lake.According to Drunk Fisherman the lake has an active population of bass. He said the fishing is good just down the shore from the park, I am guessing more or less in the background of the photo. The lake is catch and release so you can't keep any of the bass but catch and release is the proper approach for any species as fun to catch as bass.

Detouring to Turtle Lake should have added about 3 miles to the usual ride but as we found our way back onto the regular route the wind shifted slightly and the atmosphere changed to feel ominously like rain. I remarked to the IGPWOPWRWM that there would be no further stops because any mile we rode before it started to rain would be a mile we didn't have to ride IN the rain. We rode hard and we rode the most direct route until we were within a mile of home, close enough that we could get home dry in any but the most sudden and intense cloud burst. As a result of taking the most direct route we ended up with a ride distance about the same as usual. So much for trying to stretch BB out to a Kirk Park ride training distance.

This is a different perspective on the corn, again showing that it is a good year here for corn.Where's BB? We made it home without getting rained on and, in fact, the threat of rain seems now to have passed.

The Tour ended today and serious football in France begins on Saturday. Le Trophée des Champions is the official kick-off, a match between the winners of Ligue 1 and Le Coupe de France. Lyon won both of those titles last year so the opposition will be provided by Ligue 1 runners-up, Bordeaux.

Nantes opens league play the following Saturday, August 9, at Auxerre. The cycling is over, let the football begin.