Progress report

This World Cup thing has serious possibilities for disruption of both my bicycling and my bicycle blogging.  So many games.

TOPWLH and I got in a very nice ride on Friday but . . .

We had to leave at half time of one game and got back for the second half of another.  And even to do that required NO STOPS.  No pictures.  And then with the second half of one game and the third game after no time for blogging anyway.

No ride yesterday, all day rain which was cold and ugly but never officially severe.  The rain continued overnight and into this morning, I thought today was going to be a day for futbol. And today was a hugely important day for the Copa.  France had their first game and my personal pick to win the tournament, Argentina, also opened.

The sun came out though and it got to be warm enough.  Then France got that goalkeeper dumps it into his own net own goal right at the start of the second half to make me confident in the outcome of that game.  I positively bolted for the door.

It was warm enough and dry enough but it WAS way too windy.  I wanted to get some miles but pretty much conceded that the standard distance wasn't going to happen.  Too windy and Argentina starting at 5pm.

So I did get some pretty nice miles in and as always, it felt good.

Strong west winds I headed downhill towards the west, a standard move, and then circled uphill with a tailwind and then up through the farm campus.

I ended up circling back through Saint Anthony Park and then again uphill with a tailwind and though the Fairgrounds.  There is a new permanent fence going in behind the new Home Depot up on Machinery Hill.

That thing cuts directly through the area of pavement used the last several years by the skateboard park.  It looks to me like they are cutting this mostly underused area off from the main Fair area, my guess is they are going to use it for parking.

Of all the things they have over there during the Fair, the one thing they seem chronically short of is parking.

Meanwhile down at one of the main parking lots there were people running some sort of car rally, driving around a course laid out with cones.  They had official timing devices and everything, including polite applause by a group standing near the finish whenever one of the cars came through with a good time.

Austin Healey?  Anyone know for sure?

That guy was fast but there was a white Corvette that had the best time during the time I watched beating this guy by about two seconds.  It is certainly worth mentioning, however, that this guy was actually shifting his gearbox while the Corvette appeared to be an automatic transmission.

The Corvette was posting the best time based on horsepower but the red car was the one who was actually driving.

So, the Copa so far.  First off, Germany hasn't played yet so there is still a huge unknown.  Everyone knows about Holland 5, Spain 1, an absolute culture changer for world football.  Spain is totally and forever stripped of the aura of invincibility that was built up by their victories in the last three major tournaments.

Teams that have won games that have no chance of winning the Cup?  Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, lots of them.  For Brazil, the two 22 year old super stars lived up to their billings, albeit with a certain amount of assistance from the referee.  Overall, the team isn't good enough. Their keeper plays in the MLS for crying out loud.  Further first place in their group meets second place in Group B in the first round of the knockout.  After Holland 5, Spain 1 (see above), second place in Group B is likely Spain.  Beating Spain is going to be a very tall task for the host country.

Teams that lost who could still win?  Spain.

Once every four years, an incredible marathon.  So far I have really enjoyed Ivory Coast over Japan, very entertaining, Columbia over Greece, best team dancing after a goal by Columbia after their first goal, and Switzerland with an impossibly late goal absolutely stealing one from Ecuador in extra time this morning.

The greatest sporting event in the world, the FIFA World Cup.