Half-way

The bicycle season is seven months long. There is an occasional ride in November and a few rides in March and even the very rare December or February. But the season really begins in April and ends at the end of October, seven months.

July is the middle month of the seven and the middle of the month, July 15 looms large. Those of us who are number obsessive know that a season mileage goal is best half-way achieved by July 15. Failure to do so leads to unpleasant scrambling as the daylight wanes.

Today I passed the half-way mark in my season mileage goal, a week early.

Today is going to be hot again, although probably not up to yesterday's scorching standards. I felt it was appropriate to get out before the heat again. I was out of the house before 7am again today and home just before 10:05. It slips my mind easily how very pleasant these early morning rides are in July when it is plenty warm enough to ride very early.

I don't ride in Minneapolis very often. I only get to this lake once or twice a year. So here is Lake Nokomis.Anyone who has or is currently living in Richfield or South Minneapolis will surely recognize this as the north side beach taken from the vantage point of the south side beach. It seems to me to be quintessentially Lake Nokomis.

Closed circuit to Ms. Wireless: I rode all the way around the lake, even that marshy bit west of Cedar that usually gets skipped. I turned off Nokomis boulevard at about the furthest western point and found myself to be at 54th and Bloomington and about 12 miles from home. I could get to, oh say, 77th and 12th with about 3.5 more miles. I would have done it this morning but it was only 8:30 and I would have been there before 9 and I knew you were not up. But be forewarned, you are within riding distance.

Riding early I taped today's stage of the Tour. I am going to go and watch it right now. Cancellara was fabulous yesterday but you cannot win the Tour in the Prologue. Closed circuit to Michigan: It might be possible to lose the Tour in the Prologue, particularly if you fall off your bike. Tough break for O'Grady. It doesn't take him out of the hunt for the green jersey or for stage wins but sprinters cannot afford to lose time in sprint stages. Klöden looked good, don't you think?

Hottest day of the year?

The weather page in the local newspaper says today is going to be the hottest day of the year. Well, it occurred to me that last year we got in a couple of pretty nice rides heading out from Yellow Lake Lodge on the two hottest days of the year. The key is getting an early start.

I was in the garage before 7am and on the road shortly thereafter. This is Bellaire Beach on White Bear Lake, 15 miles from home at 8:15.Across the street is a Lutheran church and then two doors up is Aunt Betty's house. I rode by slowly and took a look. Someone is living there but who that might be I have no clue. Perhaps family, perhaps the house has been sold.

I passed some lakes that I do not get to very often so I took pictures. This is Lake Gervais, pronounced "jarvis" for you outlanders. Visible on the far shoreline is the Little Canada water tower.There were lots of fishing boats on the lake.

This is Keller Lake.It looks pretty and calm but that is a bit of an illusion. There are busy highways on two sides of the lake, Highway 36 on the far end and Highway 61 on the right.

And this is Lake Phalen, the jewel of the east side.Home by shortly after 10 and glad of it as it surely is starting to get hot out there.

I passed several other lakes including Owasso, Vadnais and Como, but only submit pictures of lakes which have not previously been featured.

The Tour has started and as I type Discovery Channel's Vladimir Gusev is the leader. The favorites are still to come.

In response to comments my explanation for my selections is that these are riders who I believe are probably not doping. Both Evans and Leipheimer had results last year which, if they were doping, they were not doing so very successfully. Both were strong in some stages but also had stages when they were clearly not strong enough and were unable to hold the leader's pace. As a result neither finished very high in the general classification.

Klöden finished quite high but for me escapes suspicion for now. He has recently adamantly denied doping. In his self defense he points out that since age eleven he has been ranked at the top of the world rankings for his age group. He wasn't doping when he was eleven. He has now reached maturity and is riding at the very top of the sport. His explanation makes sense to me, he has always been one of the best. We should not suspect doping just because he still is capable of riding at the highest level.

And by the way, I don't like Vinokourov for just exactly the opposite reason. Born in the former Soviet Union, sometimes freakishly strong in the mountains, working with the Italian doping doctor, Vino for me raises too many red flags. If he can win with the certain scrutiny that he will be under in this year's Tour I may reconsider. If he cannot win I will believe that my suspicions were correct.

So, once again, Evans, Leipheimer and Klöden.

Number 100

It was another beautiful warm summer day here so I decided to take a ride on my bicycle.Grass Lake has appeared before. But as it is not accessible on a paved surface it has only appeared when I am riding the Axis. Today I rode across the pedestrain bridge still on the pavement and got this photo from near the end of the asphalt. For comparison see the photo in the March 23 post.

As I passed the spot near Lake Owasso where I saw the fox yesterday I had a different sort of encounter. Coming down the hill on Dale where two youngish teenage boys on BMX bikes. They were I suspect about 14 as they were too big for the bikes but they were still riding bikes, not yet eligible for a license to drive. We exchanged glances but nothing more. That is until about a half block later when I heard from behind me a "I like your helmet". I gave a thumbs up and a thank you. Not a nice bike but still it made me smile.

I don't have enough time on the farm to be positive about grain identifications either but I am reasonably sure that this is wheat. This is a plot growing along Larpenteur quite near to the campus buildings.The Tour de France starts tomorrow. The popular choice to win is Alexandre Vinokourov of the Astana team. I expect Vino to be the effervescent presence in the race that he was when last he raced but I do not expect him to win. My choice is for the maillot jaune to remain on the shoulders of a native English speaker. My prediction is Australia's Cadel Evans of the Lotto team. I think that he will be joined on the podium by Discovery Channel's Levi Leipheimer and a member of the Astana team who is not Vinokourov, Andreas Klöden.

Home alone

TOPWLH has gone with her brother and her parents on a family vacation. To be fair, I was not excluded, they said I could go. But I work and today and tomorrow I have regularly scheduled shifts. So I am Culkinesque, here on my own.

My ride today was a quest for these:My pedals, Speedplay X-series, have a composite resin pedal body. But the actual contact point of cleat to pedal is these things. The "bowtie" bolts to the resin body, the cleat slides over the wide parts, the connection is complete. The resin part is fairly indestructible but the metal parts wear. The cleat connecting part, initially round, gradually flattens on both sides. And this deal gradually wears away as well. After nearly 9,000 miles the connection is no longer quite snug. The result is that I have developed a metal to metal click. I have already gotten new cleats and those coupled with these new bowties should eliminate the click.

I tried County Cycles but they didn't have this particular part in stock. I tried the other Roseville bike shop and even Erik's and neither of those had the part either. Eventually I ended up at Freewheel, that's their advertising that the part is pictured on. The bike kid went all out and eventually located the part. It doesn't look like installation is going to be a big deal although I did have to acquire my first "torx" tool for the special head on the fasteners.

I passed some other of the University fields and although I have no picture, I can report that the oats are ready for harvest. Getting a good look at what I recognized immediately as oats confirmed for me that the other field that I was a bit uncertain about is, indeed as I suspected, wheat. Oats is the first grain to mature, wheat the last.

And in wildlife news today as I made the turn up onto Dale from the street along the east side of Lake Owasso a red fox loped across the road in front of me.

It was a little too warm and a little too windy but it was an extraordinarily pretty day, blue sky and cumulus clouds. It was nice out there.

Independence Day

The weather deities (mainly rain) provided a couple of rest days. I wanted to ride today, but today is for us, as for many, a pretty busy day. If we were going to get in a ride we would have to start early.

I was out by 7:30am. I was struck again by how unpopulated the city is at 7:30. I crossed Snelling Avenue without a car in sight in either direction, most unusual. I circled back to the house by 8am and TOPWLH joined me and we set out for an Independence Day ride.

The wind was very light but what there was seemed a bit out of the south. With this in mind we headed away from the lake tour towards the river. We rode through the University campus and visited the site of our winter hobby. For the past three seasons we have been season ticket holders for University womens' hockey. The games are played here, at Ridder Arena.Of course, it is normally a bit colder when we visit Ridder. That season will come again soon enough. Just in case anyone is keeping track, my preseason prediction of order of finish in the WCHA is 1. Minnesota 2. Wisconsin 3. Minnesota-Duluth.

We crossed the Stone Arch Bridge and rode out to the end of the road. This is our rest stop shortly after the turnaround. The riverfront is all park land north from Hennepin Avenue all the way to Plymouth for sure, possibly to Broadway, possibly to the end of the road. There is a commercial presence on the river bank immediately after the road ends but I think it may be park all the way until then. This area of the park is opposite North 4th Avenue, quite near to the outlet for Bassett's Creek. As recently as 1985 this was all railroad yard.I had not intended to picture the corn. But in the 4 days since the last picture on June 30 the corn has made amazing progress. For every photo until now my vantage point has been sitting down on the grass. For this photo for the first time I had to rise from that sitting position in order to get a reasonable perspective.This photo was taken from my knees. Babe for scale.

We cleaned up and headed out to Canterbury for the annual free hot dog horse race show with Jim and Herb. Emily won some money, Barbara didn't lose as much as she usually does, I cashed lots of tickets but none for any large payouts and kept my losses well within budget. I think a good time was had by all.

Opera Garnier

A photo taken on my morning walk.As the girl said, out the door, around the corner, and, boom, the Opera. I was standing in the middle of what would be in a couple of hours a very busy street. As I took my morning walk it was quiet and tranquil. And beautiful.

Pilot Knob

First off, and to get this out of the way, here is something red. That would be me.It was a bit too cool this morning so I waited until after lunch to ride. It was mostly pretty nice but those middle of the day rides are very taxing. The sun high in the sky makes demands that it doesn't make after 6pm.

I get across the Mississippi with some regularity but I had not been across the Minnesota River previously this year. I set off with that as a goal.

This picture was taken after crossing the first river but before crossing the second. This is Fort Snelling from the bluff side. It has appeared a couple of times previously from across the river. Fort Snelling features historical reenactment. The flag is a 24 star flag which would have been the number of states (and the number of stars on the flag) from the time they are reenacting. The fort was finished in 1825, Missouri was admitted as the 24th state in 1821, Arkansas was admitted as the 25th state in 1836, so I am thinking they are reenacting 1825.The fort appears in this photo because of the red stripes on the flag.

This is the turn around point, the Pilot Knob scenic overlook on the Minnesota River. That is the airport across the river. The river bottom here is all state park so undeveloped. Probably not visible but still present is the red tail on the Northwest flight taking off in the upper right of the photo.So, enough red already.

The Tour de France begins Saturday with a prologue in London. What should be rising anticipation for cycling's greatest event is instead uncertainty and more bad publicity. Giro winner Danilo Di Luca has been summoned by Italian anti-doping authorities to explain his links to doping activities dating to 2004. Third place finisher Eddy Mazzoleni has also been summoned by the same authorities. Presumed Tour de France favorite Alexandre Vinokourov has admitted to association with the most notorious doping doctor, also in 2004, although he claims he only used the doctor for massage therapy, not for medical purposes. And America's leading sports weekly has published an examination of the recent problems. The story includes and shines new light on doping allegations concerning Lance Armstrong that the magazine says have "removed the last vestiges of the sport's credibility."

The critical evidence is sworn testimony provided by Betsy Andreu, wife of former rider and current TV commentator, Frankie Andreu. Frankie has confirmed his wife's account.

The magazine reports her testimony as follows:

"On Oct. 25, 1996, doctors opened Armstrong's skull to cut two cancerous lesions off his brain. Two days later the 25-year-old cyclist was in a conference room at the Indiana University Hospital. His Motorola teammate Frankie Andreu and Andreu's fiancée, Betsy Kramar, were among some half dozen of the Texan's friends in the room. When two doctors entered, Betsy's inclination was to give Armstrong his privacy, but, she testified at the SCA hearing, he bade her to stay.

One of the doctors, Betsy recalled in her testimony, asked Armstrong, "Have you ever used any performance-enhancing drugs?" Recalling the scene for SI, Betsy says that Armstrong was seated, gazing downward and holding his IV stand with his left hand, as he ticked off five drugs: EPO, growth hormone, cortisone, steroids, testosterone. Frankie Andreu, who married Betsy in December 1996, backed up her testimony."

The magazine asks, "Are they all dirty? Does it matter? Should we care?" It is starting to be hard to be a fan of the race.