Voeckler remains in spotty

My intention is that this is a bicycling blog. Almost instantaneously upon beginning to make entries, however, I realized that serial repetition of distance, average speed, and weather conditions wasn't going to be very interesting, either for me or for potential readers.

So I take photos of interesting things that I see while riding and post the photos along with a description. And the truth is that some days I ride along and not a single thing that I pass seems like a good photo opportunity. Today was not such a day.

I started out towards the south intending to ride to the river. I quickly became aware that there was also a pretty strong west component to the wind. I headed southwest towards the University. I don't ride over there very often and this was my second day in a row heading down the tramway towards the new football stadium.

I decided that I didn't want to cross the Stone Arch Bridge again. I was out about an hour and a half earlier than yesterday and today WAS Sunday so the probability was that many fewer people would be out and about. The Stone Arch was likely to be fairly deserted. But I decided to see if I could ride across the 10th Street Bridge. The 10th Street Bridge is a little too busy during regular hours but Sunday morning is not regular hours. It turned out just fine, there was only a handful of pedestrians and a few other cyclists on the bridge.

The view from the 10th Street Bridge is of the 35W Bridge. The morning newspaper reported that the last precast concrete section had been placed and that only a 7 foot gap remained to be filled before the span was complete from shore to shore. Here is what that 7 foot gap in the new 35W bridge looks like from the 10th Street Bridge, 100 feet or so away.Having crossed to the West Bank I found myself in territory where I almost never ride. I have visited Freewheel Cycle on several occasions over the last couple of years, notably when female visitors are in town. Freewheel seems to have the best selection of women's clothing of any of the shops in town.

I have visited Freewheel several times but always before arrived in my car. No bike shops feels completely right to me until I have been there on my bicycle. It feels more like someplace where you stop while in your car until you have stopped there while on your bicycle. I was a bit disappointed to find that the shop was not yet open when I arrived so I could not introduce my bicycle to the shop. I did introduce my bike to the sign in the parking lot.I then set out to find the way across the Washington Avenue Bridge. I knew that there was a pedestrian deck above the automobile deck and I had heard word of bicycle lanes. I rode down past the law school and found only a stairway leading up to the deck. I carried my bike up.

I located the bike lanes and backtracked on two of them to find a street level entry to the level I was on. Back past the law school is another stairway but at 21st and 4th, in front of the Rarig Center, there is a cutout in the curb that gets you up onto the plaza.

I was riding across the bridge towards the main campus when I noticed that the old bridge wreckage is laid out on the riverbank below the bridge.I call the first picture "BridgeNew" while this one is "BridgeOld".

I rode out onto the main campus, also a place I have not previously ridden and commemorated the occasion with a picture of one of the main campus signature buildings, Northrup Auditorium.As I circled towards home I came upon an opportunity to illustrate transportation again.

This is not Union Junction, it is the beginning of the area that is known as Union Junction. I spent a majority of the time that I spent working as a switchman when I was a young man working in the Union Yards, I KNOW where the Union Junction is.

So that pitiful switch and siding visible in the photo is not THE Union Junction.

The photo illustrates again where trains are likely to be found in the context of where the rails are.Also visible on the last car is the ETD. They don't have cabooses anymore, they have an End of Train Device.

And in the bicycle race in France, Thomas Voeckler's Bouygues Telecom team drove out from the peloton to reel in an early break and allow Voeckler to join the breakaway riders free at the head of the race. He used that position to score more mountain points and is now firmly in the lead of the mountain points competition. He will wear the spotty jersey at least until Thursday. The next three stages have no mountain points available. However, Thursday has 2 second category climbs including an 11 kilometer drag up to the finish at a ski resort. Second category climbs offer more points than Thomas has won to this point meaning that it will be difficult for him to remain in the jersey once the real strong men of the mountains come out to play.

It is after 9pm in London and that tennis thing isn't over yet.