July spectacular

The wind shifted around to the prevailing direction (West), temperatures rose, humidity middled and a spectacular example of a really nice day in July occurred. I got a late start because of le Tour and some other stuff I had to do but I got out on the road during the early afternoon, probably the nicest part of today's celebration of July.

The wind diminished somewhat and I am pleased to report that I had pretty good legs. The two hour ride still took two hours to complete but my average was in the upper range of the range of times for this distance. I felt pretty strong most of the time.

Lots of other people were out celebrating summer. The parking lot at the Lake Owasso beach was full and there were lots of folks in the lake. Here is a bicycle oriented beach photo taken from near the parking lot.A little earlier I passed through the Sucker Lake portion of the Snail Lake Regional Park and got this shot illustrating the lake, the day, the cumulus clouds, the glory of July in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities.Today's stage was the first time that the peloton ventured into the high mountains. The results may have previewed the final end of race podium but I am not quite ready to concede the top spot to today's breakout star, Alberto Contador. It seems clear enough that Contador and Armstrong will be among the top three but the third could still be any of the group including Vande Velde, Schleck (Andy), defending champion Sastre, Pellizotti, and yes, I think he might still make the podium Evans.

Today Contador may have returned the snub given to him by Armstrong earlier in the week by this time being the Astana rider who attacked out of the bunch even though the bunch included a teammate who was ahead of him in the general classification. As with Armstrong's attack on the day of echelons, today's move by Contador seems totally justified. It was the first day in the mountains. The mountains are Contador's strength. If he is going to win le Tour it is necessary that he gain time on the mountain stages. Today he took the opportunity to do just that.

Armstrong acted the dutiful domestique. Once Contador made the jump out of the pack Armstrong made no corresponding effort on his own behalf, from that point forward riding only defensively. The only time Lance surged was when Evans attacked the bunch to try to get back to Contador. At that moment Lance surged and easily drew Evans back into the group. In reeling in that surge and in being able to ride easily among the leaders of that main group Armstrong still looks way strong to me. It is a three week race, Contador looks the best at this point but there are more than two weeks to go and I am not ready to write Armstrong off the top spot of the podium. I think I will join in the conventional wisdom conceding victory to SOME member of Astana. But I still think I will tune in tomorrow and see what happens next.

I thought it would be Leipheimer who would fall from the top five and instead it was Klöden. I expected the stage to set up in such a way that Levi would be working for Armstrong. Instead a crash meant that Leipheimer was not riding at the front of the lead group until after Contador had already bolted away. Levi was not called on to sacrifice himself for Lance and did not concede time. Instead it was Klöden who was just not quite able to hang with the heads of state and lost 13 seconds, moving him out of the top five.

It is a great sporting event and an even greater travelogue. I forgot to post this anecdote yesterday when the stage finished in Barcelona passing by that fountain at the bottom of the final climb. The Other Person Who Lives Here (TOPWLH) has recently visited Barcelona and kept exclaiming over the various sights. That fountain and that climb are apparently an important tourist attraction in Barcelona. For example, here is the what the official Tour de France guide of Barcelona says about that climb and that finish:

"Rising from the city's heart is Montjuich, the magic mountain where from its crest, one can see why this Spanish coastal city is favoured by so many, open to the sea and embracing its rich inheritance and identity."

Today the stage began from in front of that same fountain at the bottom of the hill but I did notice that the Catalons apparently only operate the fountain for stage finishes as there was no water shooting into the air for today's stage beginning. I digress.

Yesterday when the riders passed by the fountain near the end of the stage TOPWLH exclaimed, "That's the place where they stole my money!" Ask her, it's a good story.