Contador claws back 8 seconds

The race is Contador v. A. Schleck, we can all agree on that, right? Certainly that was the prevailing wisdom before Stage 1. OK, anyone who thought otherwise go ahead and raise your hand.

Still waiting.

OK then. And OK, Evans has been on the final race podium twice and his performance in the first four stages indicates he may be headed there again. But don't we all think it is going to come down to Contador v. A. Schleck?

The results of the first three stages dropped Contador to 69th in the general classification but it is a long race and it still seems pretty likely to me that Schleck is the only rider with a chance to beat Contador, even a Contador who after three stages was trailing the tour leader and god of thunder by 1:42. The commentators did not much discuss this at the end of today's stage, focusing instead on the god of thunder retaining yellow and the plucky Australian riding for an American team holding on to win the stage. But it's out there. Contador gained time on Schleck. As Paul pointed out, Alberto had to go deeply into the red and he gained very little. But it is a long race.

After overnight rain today dawned looking pretty ugly. The forecast was for a better than 50 percent chance of rain and I had resigned myself to that as I watched le Tour. But once Evans was in the house with his stage win I started checking radar weather. I declared bicycling to be "On".

I left the garage into an unfavorable looking and feeling atmosphere but in a stunning reversal of most of the earlier season riding, I felt a flash as the sun peaked out just before I reached the end of the driveway. It ended up being a pretty nice day for a ride.

No one who reads this blog should arrive at the State Fair in August and be surprised by construction developments at the Fairgrounds. This new arena won't be completed until next year but the old quonset shaped open air judging arena kitty corner from the cattle barn is going to be replaced.Also of interest, at least to me, is that machine in the Horses barn doorway appears to be, although not named as such, the same type of machine that I witnessed last week labeled as "Ditch Witch". Again there is no actual ditch in evidence.

But what really caught my attention as I rode down through that part of the grounds was this: an open door on an unoccupied Cattle Barn.I circled around to see what was going on. The door was open, there was no one inside, no sign of interior activity, no sign of anyone who cared. I took another circle and discovered that the cattle barn is getting new windows. With my previous claims of having ridden all available pavement near my house and with recognition that the cattle barn has a concrete floor I decided to get this photo of the new window project from inside the barn.If you can't guess you are new here but I rode my bicycle in there. Truthfully it isn't even the first Fairgrounds building that I have been inside of on my bicycle, it is the second. This one is the biggest though and I rode around in there for long enough to clearly qualify to check that piece of concrete off the list. I have ridden my bicycle inside the cattle barn.

It took a while to develop confidence that the day was going to stay nice long enough to complete the two hour ride so I ended up again staying within sprint distance to home. After leaving the Fairgrounds I ventured north and got as far as a previously twice remarked upon construction project in Shoreview.Here is a difference between France and Minnesota that I have noticed in the last couple of days. In France at the highest point of elevation in every little town you find an impressive stone church. At the hightest point of elevation in every town in Minnesota you find a water tower. I ride to the water towers and today I rode past what I am going to hereby christen as "Script Shoreview".

As I do a final edit before hitting the "publish post" button the better than 50 percent chance of precipitation wins. It has started to rain.