Water in one of its solid forms

This was taken this afternoon. The radar confirms that probably plenty more is on the way.But it doesn't sting like it would have even a week ago. It was warm yesterday. Spring has sprung. This stuff will be gone by Thursday.

FC Nantes travelled to Troyes this evening to play the team currently in 3rd place in Ligue 2. Mamadou Bagayoko and Filip Djodjevic scored 2nd half goals as Nantes prevailed 2-0. The magic number of points for promotion is reduced to 11 with 8 games to go. Next up is 18th place Niort this Friday at Nantes.

Ahhh, feels like spring

The overnight rain which was described as possibly changing over to snow did not occur. The storm system still seems to be coming but for the most part it seems to have skirted off to the north. With a southerly weatherly pattern prevailing today became the first day where it really, really felt like spring. At last!

I headed out shortly after noon with the temperature approaching the average for the day. It was sunny and nearly still, a pretty nice day. The predicted storm was still looming and the prevailing wisdom was falling temperatures with gradual change over to the bad weather. Instead it got warmer, eventually reaching 52!!, although looking outside now in late afternoon it is starting to look like the storm may make it here yet.

In response to light variable winds I headed out to the north. I got across I-694 for the first time to Grass Lake. I think for this picture I probably could have just gone ahead and used a similar photo I took last year but I didn't, this one was taken today.As I was approaching this spot I met a guy riding my bike. I have only on I think one other occasion seen another Bianchi Axis and that one time it was a completely different color scheme than the Axis I have. This bike today was the same year, same color scheme, exactly the same bike. Seeing someone else riding my bike is obviously a pretty unusual experience. I have had the experience one other time when I was riding the Look, although to be fair, on that occasion the frame was the same but he was riding Shimano DuraAce. I, of course, ride Campagnolo Chorus.

Today was the day that occurs once each spring where the weekend arrives, one of the days is nicer than expected, and a bunch of people decide they need a new bike. I rode past the bike shop and the parking lot was jammed. I stopped briefly and spoke to Joe and Scott. I told Joe I just wanted to be in the store on a day when they were selling a lot of bikes. Joe replied that today was definitely the day. It happens once each spring.

I achieved another milestone today, going over 3,000 on the Axis. The milestone yesterday was not the one Santini guessed, it was actually that I surpassed in March 2008 the mileage total for March 2007. So I guess I should stop complaining about how awful the weather has been. Obviously it must be, at the least, no worse than last year.

Last evening a crowd of near capacity of 80,000 were in attendance at Stade de France in the Paris inner suburb of Saint-Denis for the final of Le Coupe de la Ligue between RC Lens and Paris Saint-Germain. Presumably a goodly number of those in attendance were fans of the Paris team. Those fans were rewarded when a foul was whistled on Lens in the penalty area in the 93rd minute, 3 minutes into injury time. PSG converted the penalty kick as time expired to win the Cup by a 2-1 score.

Auckland rule

Minnesota recently became the first state to declare March 29 to be Vietnam Veterans Day. Today was the first observance. March 29 was chosen because it marks the day in 1973 that the last American troops left Vietnam. Those who can remember that day must surely recall the news footage of helicopters departing from the roof of the embassy in Saigon, landing on American ships at sea and then being shoved overboard because there was no room for them on board.

The first Vietnam Veterans Day was the nicest day here in a bit, actually reaching the average high temperature. However it reached that temperature with the help of a south wind. A really strong south wind, 20+ mph. The Auckland rule was invoked.

With that strong wind out of the south I rode south from home again which took me over to the river. I ended up in front of this place on Selby across from Saint Thomas. This building is the site of my only personal experience with piano moving.Guess which apartment? Anyone guessing upper gets credit, the actual correct answer is upper left.

It was only an upright but those are stairs leading up to the exterior door, then inside to a staircase with a landing, a 180 degree turn and then up to the apartment. The movers were the Big Kid, the pianist's uncle and me that I remember for sure, I think there was one other, possibly the person who later in life was sent to charm school by his employer after which they decided they liked him just fine the way he was. The Big Kid was married to the pianist's sister which is how we all got involved. None of us ever again felt like moving a piano, I personally have no idea how that particular piano got out of that place and back down those stairs. There is a reason why you can hire guys to move pianos. They have the appropriate equipment and experience. We were just dumb guys wrestling a piano up the stairs. No one was injured.

The ride was a success including the fact that I reached the first mileage goal of the season.

First look at the river

It was another chilly day, although not quite as bad as the prediction. The predicted high was 40 on the day when the average clicked up from 46 to 47. I found some information on the weather in the newspaper which will confirm that this is more than just idle complaining on my part. The average temperature for the month is slightly more than 4 degrees below normal. There has been only a single instance of a temperature reaching even 50 which occurred on March 13, more than 2 weeks ago. The forecast tomorrow says rain, possibly turning to snow late in the day. Cold enough for you?

But it was sunny and seemed pretty nice as the mercury edged up to 45 or so, almost average. I went for a ride.

I went back to the vest with jacket combination and also went back to the gloves. I did retain the full balaclava, although I had it down the whole time, only using it to keep my neck warm. My feet got cold again, and one finger on my right hand. The layering was a success.

Trying to stretch distance is really, really hard at this time of year. I tried to stretch it a couple more miles again today, making the second day in a row of stretching and a third day in a row of riding. I rode to the river and the long uphill away from the river once I turned towards home was extremely difficult.

Here is the first look for this year at the Mississippi.This is an look upstream from just below the Marshall Avenue Bridge. Unlike that slightly further upstream bridge that fell down, this one is poured concrete and looks to me like it isn't going into the river any time soon.

I was surprised on the ride to discover that street sweeping has begun. I start out from home and cross first into Falcon Heights and then enter the City of Saint Paul. The streets in the Como Park neighborhood have been swept. Como Avenue all the way down through Saint Anthony Park is swept and when I eventually got there the portion of the River Road that I rode on was also swept. Street sweeping is a certain sign of spring. Now if only the weather will take the hint.

High temperature for day retreats

Yesterday was too cold. Today the high temperature retreated an additional 6 degrees. Clearly this was going to be too cold. But the sun was out and the wind was a bit more gentle. I rode.

At the end of last season I had settled on a long sleeve jersey, windstopper vest, medium weight jacket combination that remained comfortable all the way to the very last ride of the year and down into the 30s. Yesterday that wasn't warm enough. So today I tried medium weight fleece jacket covered with a light windbreaker, and mittens instead of gloves. I almost overdid it as it turned out that I had to unzip just a bit to keep from overheating. Mind you it was not a major unzip, I moved the zipper from top up next to the neck down about 2 inches, just enough to let a little cold air onto my upper chest. I was fairly comfortable for the entire ride thereafter except my feet were getting cold at the end. A success.

This is an arm of Island Lake.The geese are still walking on water.

The draw for the quarterfinals of Le Coupe de France has been held and Carquefou has drawn another home game. The game is certain to be played at Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes. The opponent is yet another giant from Ligue 1, this time Paris-Saint Germain.

It is not a good draw but it is actually about the best the tiny club could reasonably hope for. PSG is firmly in the relegation zone of Ligue 1 and must soon concentrate every possible effort on saving themselves from being sent down. Le Coupe de France is likely to be of somewhat less importance to the Parisians than it might be to a team safely in the middle of the league. On the other hand PSG has already played at Nantes once this year, defeating Poiré-sur-Vie at the Nantes stadium two rounds ago in Le Coupe de France. But a further distraction for PSG is that this very weekend they play in the final of Le Coupe de la Ligue against Lens at Stade de France.

In a related note Paris FC is only 3 points outside the promotion zone in the Championnat National keeping alive the possibility that both Paris teams will next year be in Ligue 2. In another related note, Carquefou is currently 14th in its league and if they do not soon achieve some improved league results they too will be relegated to an even lower league. However, there is no doubt what is most important to Carquefou at this point and clearly Le Coupe de France will receive the team's best efforts. The game is scheduled for April 16. Who knows, another early goal for Carquefou and anything could happen.

FC Nantes remains second in Ligue 2, 3 points behind Le Havre. But with only 9 games remaining FC Nantes needs any combination of a gain of points for themselves or a loss of points by their pursuers totalling only 14 to be assured of promotion.

And finally, in its final tune up before the naming of the national team to represent France in the European tournament this summer, France defeated England 1-0 at Stade de France. Frank Ribery scored the only goal of the game. Apparently Beckham played for England, earning his 100th and perhaps last cap. Becks will increasingly have trouble finding opportunities to represent his country especially considering the fact that England has failed to qualify for this summer's event.

Warm up stalls below average high for the day

It was a near heat wave as the temperature climbed from 10 degrees below normal to only 1 below normal. Here is an example of what near normal temperature does to water.That's the first appearance this year of water in liquid form, this particular water being pooled up in a low spot in the corn field. Therefore this picture also qualifies as the first peek at this year's corn crop.

After I took this picture I was putting the camera back under the numerous layers and getting my gloves back on etc. when a guy driving a large pick up with one of those covers over the bed stopped and inquired if everything was OK, whether I had a flat, obviously intending to offer me a ride home if I was so inclined. Guys in large pick ups do not generally fit the profile of bike friendly motorists, in fact, exactly the opposite. The first bicycle-motor vehicle interaction of the season goes completely against type and is actually quite pleasant. I thanked him for his generous offer but showed him that I was merely putting my camera away. I am going to count this episode as a positive omen for the upcoming season.

Negative omens for the upcoming season are that again today it was still too cold to ride. In the depths of winter when I contemplate riding again I generally tell myself that I will go out when it is 50. But then I end up trying it when it is 40. This year is typical in that I end up riding in the 30s, even down to, oh say, 34. Today was 44. Too much frozen ground, frozen lakes, snow on the ground, still too much cold. Today the parts of the ride into the wind were just plain too danged cold.

But I got out, the season begins again.

First full day of spring

Premier jour du printemps hier, dit le calendrier. Mais le printemps ne s'est pas fait en un jour.

(text borrowed from Avignon in Photos)

Global cooling

Spring continues to disappoint. This is the coldest spring in my recent memory. Today featured yet again a high temperature of about 5 degrees below average for the date. It passed for a nice day for this spring as the sun was out for a little while. Soon enough the overcast moved back in and as evening falls there is a definite feeling of snow in the air.

But it was acceptable riding conditions so I rode. Yesterday's effort produced a little overnight soreness, the most noticeable being a bit of a twinge in my left Achilles. A little soreness is OK, good even, as it is a sign of progress. The other potential issue from the season start up is the user bicycle interface, the, ahem, posterior regions. I think the second and third rides featured a tiny bit of soreness in that area but all now seems to be fine.

On a very, very grey day, here is Emily Lake.On the route I rode today I came to this spot about 9.8 miles into the ride. Ice.

French speaker alert: The FC Nantes website has a section called FC Nantes TV. There are two features there today about the Carquefou victory of yesterday. It is mostly guys being interviewed in French so I didn't get a whole heck of a lot out of it. But if you speak French . . . The one titled "Carquefou réalise l'exploit" features a replay of the goal towards the end of the clip, so that clip is worth a watch, even for non-French speakers as long as they are football fans. The other, "USJA Carquefou-Marseille: Les réactions" is very top heavy with guys being interviewed in French. I still listen, getting words here and there, occasionally even grasping a phrase or two. It is good practice, I hope.

Crooked number

In baseball the players often talk about the necessity of "putting up a crooked number". This refers to scoring more than 1 run in an inning, a 1 being straight and the other numbers being "crooked".

Today I put up my first mileage total where the first digit is a crooked number. It was also a crooked effort, very hard work for this time of the season. I had to push hard for that many miles but it was worth it. I feel good.

At this point I have a very good understanding of how hard it is to ride 20 miles. I know that it is going to be hard without having to make any reference to my relative level of fitness. I knew it was going to be hard today but it is also true that every increase in mileage is hard.

Yesterday we had enough new snow to bring the snowplows out. It was near normal temperatures yesterday after the snow stopped and another sunny day today with near normal temperatures rendered the streets pretty much dry. But we have plenty of snow still. Here is my spring bike parked at the mailbox.The new snow is still fairly evident, much whiter than the winter's residue snow which is mostly starting to look pretty dirty. But we still have plenty of both.

And here is some Nantes news that does involve football. The lowest ranking team remaining in le Coupe de France is 5th level league side Carquefou. Carquefou is a suburb of Nantes and for today's Cup fixture they drew as the home team against one of the giants of Ligue 1 and last year's Coupe de France finalist, Olympique de Marseille. Carquefou requested and received permission to hold the home game at the stadium of the local professional team, FC Nantes. According to the game report more than 30,000 attended the game at Stade de la Beaujoire and saw the amateur side score early and then hold on to oust Marseilles 1-0 in what is being called one of the biggest upsets in the history of the competition.

With only 8 teams remaining in the competition, 4 are from Ligue 1, 3 are from Ligue 2 and Carquefou remains representing Championnat de France Amateurs 2. A minnow is swimming with the sharks.

The final of le Coupe de la Ligue is set for Stade de France on March 29 to be contested by Ligue 1 sides RC Lens and Paris-Saint Germain.

Nantes news not related to football

Le Tour de France 2008 will begin July 5 in the coastal Brittany town of Brest. Stages beginning in Brest have produced famous winners, Fausto Coppi won his last stage when the race began in Brest in 1952 and Belgian Eddy Merckx was the winner in 1974. Three stages will be contested in Bretagne this July, with Stage 3 running 195 kilometers from English Channel town Saint-Malo to Nantes in the Loire-Atlantique département of France, almost certainly finishing near this spot.This is the Château des ducs de Bretagne. It is located on the right bank of the Loire, which formerly fed its ditches. It was the residence of the Duc de Bretagne between the 13th and 16th centuries, and later served as the Breton residence of the French Monarchy.

Snow today, no bicycling.

Race to the Sun

The hockey news is glum, the season is over. One of the reasons why victory is so sweet is that sometimes it really hurts to lose. Trying to read the body language of the players, I think this one really hurt.

Today the sun was out and the temperature improved a few degrees over yesterday. The wind swung around to the south and at this time of year a south wind is always a relief from the biting north wind. The ride was more or less tolerable until the sun went behind a giant grey bank of clouds and the wind started to come around. I was fairly close to turning around before that happened so I beat it for home. I finished without huge discomfort and all in all I pronounce the ride a success.Here's the first look for this year at the Saint Paul Campus Cows. They look as content in the remnants of snow as they look later in the year on the lush lawn.

The Paris-Nice bicycle race finished today at the traditional finish on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Italian David Rebellin, racing for the Gerolsteiner team, maintained the time advantage gained yesterday to win the race for the first time. Gerolsteiner sounds like it should be a beer company but it is actually a German mineral water company. The team rides Specialized bicycles. On Thursday the race climbed Mont Ventoux, the Giant of Provence, albeit from the opposite side as the usual approach, reputedly a somewhat easier climb. Australian Cadel Evans won the stage at Ventoux, stamping last year's Tour de France runner-up as the early favorite for this year's Tour.

And so the season begins but the stain of last year's doping scandals lingers. The winner of last year's Paris-Nice, Alberto Contador, was not permitted to ride this year as his team, Astana, was not invited. Astana was in the middle of some of the most unsavory parts of the doping behavior last year but this year's team has a new manager and a completely new set of riders. The only things remaining from old Astana are the sponsor, the Kazakh blue uniforms, and the stench. The organizers of European races seem determined to exclude Astana. This looms as a major story for le Tour de France as Contador is also the defender in that race.

Beware the Ides of March

Today was probably another 8 or 10 degrees colder.

But it is good to be obsessive about something and once having started I am likely to be fairly obsessive about this bicycling thing.

But it was a very short ride, I am pretty sure the shortest in a long time. And it was just too dang cold.I got a look at Lake Como. This picture is from the southeast corner with a northwest wind. I did not linger.

Pi day 2008

3.14

Or slightly more precisely, 3.1415926.

But close enough is twenty-two sevenths.

I have previously opined that the first ride of the year is always a hard ride. And it was.

It might have been nice enough to ride yesterday but circumstances conspired and today was the first day I was ready. The problem was today was 12 or 14 degrees colder than yesterday.

It was 38 with a NW breeze. Verdict? Too cold. But I rode.

Here is the seldom photographed and generally underappreciated Lake Josephine, about 6 miles from home.That funny looking surface water is water in its solid form.

The last French veteran of World War I, Lazare Ponticelli, has died. I wrote something about this last year on Armistice Day. Even so I admit to being a little unprepared for how rapidly these last few ancient warriors are departing. There were 22 WWI veterans remaining last November 11 but there are now apparently only 13 remaining worldwide, including just one, Frank Buckles, who is a veteran of the armed forces of the USA. It should not be a surprise, obviously, as these guys are really, really old. Ponticelli at the age of 110 at his death was the oldest living person who was born in Italy and he was the oldest living man in France. Buckles is 107 and has said that it startles him to be the last.

The season has begun. In the words of Ms. Wireless, this bicycling thing is totally bloggable. So here we go again.

Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel

The French bicycle wheel and accessory manufacturer MAVIC provides support to bicycle racing world wide. The most visible manifestation of the support is the neutral support team car which proceeds the peloton in all bicycle races of consequence. Bicycle racers all have a team car from which they can obtain a spare wheel in case of a flat tire or a spare bike in case of some more serious breakdown. The yellow car provided by MAVIC is also equipped with wheels and spare bicycles and stands ready to serve any and all riders in the case in which they are separated from their team cars and can obtain assistance from no other source.

Mavic builds up bicycles and colors them yellow for use on the yellow neutral car. In 2002 Mavic provided bicycles to the US Pro Tour built on frames provided by Massachusetts custom steel and titanium frame manufacturer Independent Fabrication. There were 5 of the IF Crown Jewels, one in each of the 2 centimeter increments in frame size from 52 to 60. The bicycles rode on the yellow car at all of the stops on that year's Pro Tour, including the San Francisco Grand Prix.

At the end of the year Mavic sold the bicycles in anticipation of using another manufacturer for the 2003 race season.

I got the 56.I paid less than the cost of the frame. I paid less than the cost of the components set, mostly Campagnolo Chorus with a few bits of Campagnolo Record. I paid slightly more than the cost of the Mavic wheelset.

The last person before me to swing his leg over the top tube of this bicycle was a professional road racer and I got the bike for a veritable song.

Mavic is a French company. The bicycle is painted for Mavic in the Mavic colors. On the downtube where ordinarily would appear the Independent Fabrication branding logo this one instead says "Service Courses". This is French for "Race Support".This frame was welded together by someone who deeply cared about his work. The welds have to be seen to be believed, formed with exquisite care and finished to a state in which the welds are virtually not visible. It is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.The full name is Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel Special Edition Custom Build. In another mark of what a special piece of equipment it is, the bicycle head badge is sterling silver. Shortly after I took this photo I went looking for and obtained a silver polishing cloth. It is a beautiful bike and it is important to keep the silver shining.And here it stands next to the French bike that has been my main ride for the past three years. It is too nice a bike to never see the road. I have decided that this year I will ride them both.In Nantes today, Nantes defeated Grenoble 1-0. With 27 games of the 38 game Ligue 2 schedule completed, Nantes has again pulled to within a single point of first place Le Havre. Troyes sits third. Nantes is currently 13 points ahead of the 4th place team. Promotion to Ligue 1 is not yet mathematically assured but failure to win promotion from this position would be nearly as big a catastrophe as having been relegated in the first place. 70 points was sufficient to win promotion for the 3rd place team last year and Nantes now sits on 55.

Allez Nantes!!

Hockey news

Those of you who don't see us very much in the winter time may or may not be aware that we are major women's hockey geeks. For the past four seasons we have had season tickets to University of Minnesota women's hockey (row 5, right on the red line).

Those of you who know a bit about the history of women's hockey may be interested to know that our first season as season ticket holders was the season that Minnesota assembled what may be the greatest college women's hockey team ever. The team was the defending national collegiate champions. The stars of that team went on to berths on the US Olympic Hockey Team. The names are Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, Kelly Stevens and Lyndsay Wall and with that leadership the University captured its second consecutive national championship.

The freshmen on that team were Bobbi Ross, Erica McKenzie and Anya Miller. We are huge fans and the incorrigibly gregarious person who lives in the same house as me has become fast friends with both of Anya's grandmothers and the mothers of Erica and Anya. I am sure she would also be friends with Bobbi's family but Bobbi is from Veblen, Saskatchewan, and her mother was able to attend only 2 games during Bobbi's career. We did speak to her at one of those two but I don't think it counts at the same level as the Miller connection.

We have seen every home game played by the now seniors and this weekend we took an additional leap into fandom by making a road trip. We traveled to Duluth to see Minnesota play Wisconsin in the conference tournament with national tournament seedings on the line.

We arrived early Saturday morning and checked into the Duluth Holiday Inn. Here is the view out our 16th floor window:I have lots of hockey I could discuss but suffice to say we saw lots of the goals of the University of Minnesota-Duluth victory over Saint Cloud State and then looked on in dismay as Wisconsin scored three soft goals and a goal mouth scrum goal to overcome three much harder earned Minnesota goals to win 4-3.

We weren't much for watching UMDuluth against Wisconsin today so we did a little Duluth winter sightseeing and headed home this morning.

This is Brighton Beach on the north end of Duluth. For those who know a bit about Duluth geography, this park is located where new Highway 61 splits from what is now referred to as Scenic 61, the old highway along the lake's edge. Duluth is visible in the right background. We particularly liked the ice formations, Babe for scale.The ice is moved about by the force of the wind and when the wind is off the shore gaps can develop in the ice sheet. When these gaps refreeze the ice is often remarkably clear. A return to wind onto the shore can fracture this newer, thinner, weaker ice. The Babe is holding up a, to her, particularly attractive piece of the clear ice.She wanted to put it in the car and take it home.

We drove out to the end of Park Point and walked about a bit at the public beach out there and then stopped at the ship canal for a final photo opportunity.That boat thing that she is standing next to is not an actual boat. It is a summer souvenir stand, not open for business today. In the background is, of course, the Duluth signature Aerial Lift Bridge.

We got home by early afternoon and were quite cheered by the news from Duluth where UMD defeated Wisconsin 5-4 in overtime. Seedings for the national tournament are to be announced later today and if Wisconsin had won they almost certainly would have received a home game in the first round with Minnesota having to travel, perhaps to what is likely to be the overall #1 seed, Harvard. With the UMD victory Minnesota holds on to a whisker thin advantage over Wisconsin in the selection criteria and is now expected to receive a #4 seed and host a game, probably against Saint Lawrence, an unseeded team.

So woohoo, one last chance to see Ross and McKenzie and Miller in their home jerseys on their home ice.

We had a nice weekend.