Throw Your Hat in the Air Cup

We got off to kind of a late start today due to the fact that I was engrossed in the bicycle race. This resulted in our being out there when it was too hot and also in our being out there in an unfamiliar time slot.

The time slot may have had some effect on Plan A or it may have been yesterday's nutritional plan (Dog me, dog me again, dog me again etc.) In any case BB had to resort to Plan B.Her facial expression indicates to me that it was something less than a completely pleasant experience.

We found very many members of that often encountered family to be out and about. The Stone Arch Bridge looked like it was going to be unsatisfactory for a return route from the north river road. The route we eventually ended up riding detoured through downtown. This resulted in BB becoming the new holder of the highly prestigious Throw Your Hat in the Air Cup.

For those of you not familiar with this traveling trophy, the holder of the Throw Your Hat in the Air Cup is that person to be most recently photographed by me while standing next to Mary Tyler Moore while dressed in bicycle clothing and also standing next to a Bianchi Veloce.

The Cup Holder is eligible for the International Bicycling With Gino Hall of Fame.

We proceeded along towards home. It was hot and we were both definitely feeling residual effects of yesterday's nutrition (see above . . . Dog me . . . etc.) You are what you eat and 3.5 dogs (or was it 4.5, do I hear 5.5?) is not what you want to have eaten before heading out on a long bike ride. For example, I was knackered and I noticed that the Babe was not attacking the uphills with her usual gusto.

We thought about skipping the corn but BB pointed out that today is July 5 and it was as close as we were going to come to the knee high by the 4th of July pose.At night you can hear the corn grow.

But the real excitement of the day was the bicycle race.Thomas Voeckler, a bicyclist of relatively modest abilities, has managed to insert himself into an extremely elite group. Thomas is of course best known for having held the leader's Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France for 10 days in 2004. He earned a permanent place in French cycling history by gallantly defending the jersey with all of his ability even though the stages were fairly obviously too hard for him.

Today he got into the first stage breakaway and captured enough mountain points to earn for himself the Spotty Jersey of the mountains classification leader. Most professional cyclists, even cyclists of great talent, never hold for even a single day one of the leader's jerseys at le Tour. Voeckler joins a heady elite by becoming a holder of two different jerseys. Allez Thomas!