Cool day in July

Versus offered an early start for today's TV coverage so we got up early. Sadly, the professional bicycle racers declined to produce very much drama.

The TV coverage today quoted Cadel Evans as saying that the course for this year's race is designed in such a way that the race was settled in the team time trial. Certainly Evans lost his chance to win in that stage and he may be right about the rest of the contenders as well. I looked at the rest of the mountain stages and there just aren't going to be many opportunities for the field to gain on the Astana riders. The mountain stages in the Alps include only one mountaintop finish. The other stages look like today's, a climb or two over some pretty severely difficult mountains but always 50 or 60 kilometers to the finish after the final mountain summit. Presumably Astana will do on those stages what they did today, ride tempo, controlling attacks on the climbs and then using the strength of the team (if necessary) to bring the group back together on the run in to the finish.

We shall see. Of course, there IS that one mountain top finish (Stage 15, next Sunday), a time trial (Stage 18, the final Thursday) and the mountaintop finish on Mont Ventoux on the last Saturday of the race, the day before the parade to Paris. There will be SOME opportunities, but it looks to me like there will be lots of stages that resemble what we saw today.

We left the house for a ride about 30 minutes after the first finishers in France. Had we been a little more anxious we could have been riding the streets of Minnesota before the God of Thunder finished riding the roads of France. Hushovd and Cavendish finished together in a group timed 24:57 after the stage winner.

It was cool and cloudy and the grey skies over the eight lake tour didn't really provide much in the way of photo opportunities. But we were diligent in our attention to our required tasks and stopped at the edge of the corn field.The guest rider is in there somewhere although she isn't providing much in the way of perspective. Maybe it's comic relief again.

Off road

It was pretty cool this morning at the moment that Versus coverage of today's Tour de France stage ended. A fairly brisk breeze was blowing out of the WNW. The weather channels I trust reported a temperature of 68 but promised 76 by 1pm so I gave it a shot. The wind was quite cool and I ended up deviating from my more or less standard routes. I rode all the way out to Highway 96, nothing new there, but the temperatures didn't rise as promised. It was still a bit uncomfortable into the wind at this point so I didn't want to ride too far east as I didn't relish riding back into the cold breeze. I decided on a more direct route even though the route took me through Grass Lake and onto a dirt trail. I decided that if the boys from Bouyges can ride time trial bikes off road that I could do the same with my road bike.

French translation requested. I got a little of it, I know they are talking about BBox Bougues Telecomm but, really, what else would they be discussing as Voeckler's team deviates from the prescribed route.

Grass Lake is part of the same chain of lakes that includes Snail Lake so I suspected that the water level of Grass Lake would be low. It was quite a bit lower than I expected though, rendering Grass Lake almost into Grass Field.There was only one dicey moment on the trail as the north end had a bit too much loose gravel, forcing me off the path onto the grass. But mostly it was fine, more hard packed dirt than gravel, and plenty dry and firm.My favorite moment from today's stage was that moment when Cavendish, clad head to mid-thigh, including sunglasses, totally in green, rode across the finish line just after the new green jersey for the new leader of that competition was awarded to the God of Thunder. Paul and Phil commented that perhaps Cavendish could see the presentation ceremony from the seat of his bicycle. Hushovd may now lead but that competition, like the yellow jersey competition is far from over.

The most interesting moment in the GC race came when Andy Schleck attacked the peleton on the final climb of the day. Christian Vande Velde in a post race interview provided the perspective on that move that the TV commentators failed to give. Vande Velde said that Schleck's team, Saxo Bank, wanted to move the yellow onto the shoulders of Astana in an attempt to put pressure on that team with a view to cracking them in the last week of the race. Schleck attacked with the intention of dropping the yellow jersey and succeeded. However, Astana covered Schleck's attack, and once back in control of the peloton they slowed the pace back down to a pace at which the race leader was able to return to the group.

In his post race column, Liggett reported that Andy Schleck says he's not overly impressed by Alberto Contador so far. Schleck says his climbing style is more suited to the Alps and that he can't wait for the Alps as he intends to try to crush the race. In order to do that he (and everyone else) needs to try and weaken Astana.

It seems apparent based on yesterday's post stage comments from both Armstrong and Bruyneel and also based on the tactics ridden today by Astana that Astana will be riding for Armstrong if he is strong enough, that the talk of riding for the strongest rider is conditional. They will ride for Contador if Armstrong is not strong enough but it looks to me to be pretty clear that Armstrong is first among equals.

Schleck thinks he can better Contador. Apparently Armstrong thinks the same.

I loved the comment made by Sherwen, "There are still three Sundays to go." The race is far from over.

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.

Retired again

Having successfully completed one of my two weeks of employment limbo I have returned to the ranks of the retired. As with the first time through with this not going to work thing, I proclaim the new status to be good. However, I have one more go round of this minor harassment to go at the end of which I will get my two watches and leave the building for good. Yes, two watches. I am entitled to a retirement watch and I also am in line for a 30 year watch (again, yes, these are separate deals) for having completed 30 years of service in April. August 4 is in all respects now official, I will receive my watches and start whatever it is that comes next.

As a retired person I did not have to tape le Tour de France today but instead had the opportunity to watch live. I hailed TOPWLH to watch the final 5 kilometers with me as Thomas Voeckler assured himself of never having to work a day in his life. Here he is at the end of today's Stage 5 with the peloton looming in the background but looming just a tiny bit too late. The have misjudged the sprint and will not catch the last survivor of the breakaway.Thomas crossed the line 7 seconds ahead of the bunch sprint, securing a stage victory and a permanent place in the pantheon of minor French sports heroes. It may be a minor place but it is most certainly a place nonetheless. Voeckler cements his credentials as a French national hero and assures that like a previous only partly successful French bicyclist, Richard Virenque, after his bicycling career is over Voeckler will be able to ride this minor celebrity into a career which does not involve showing up anywhere for work.

Thomas is already famous in France for having led the 2004 Tour for 10 stages and perhaps most famously rallying late in Stage 14 that year to limit his losses just enough to remain in the maillot jaune for another day even after eventual race winner Lance Armstrong had left him reeling far behind on a mountaintop finish stage. Thomas exhibited courage and pluck in retaining the jersey even though it had become obvious that he had no chance whatsoever of actually winning the race overall. He added to his reputation by sneaking out on a breakaway in Stage 1 of the 2008 Tour to capture the lead in the mountains classification. He successfully retained the spotty jersey awarded to the mountains leader for 5 stages or until le Tour arrived at some actual mountains. Today he completed some sort of triple crown for French bicyclists. He has held the yellow jersey, he has held the spotty jersey, and now he has won a stage.

The French have not won their own national race since 1986 (Bernard Hinault). Voeckler has had the most prominent successes in the last several years and is widely celebrated in France for those successes. Today's result only adds to his legend. If you click on the link above with his name you can find that his Wikipedia page has already been updated and the Stage victory occurred less that 7 hours ago.

Bravo, Thomas!

I rode almost immediately after the race was over. The wind was out of the east today, an extremely rare occurrence which I believe is related to the rotation of the planet. I headed for Lake Phalen on Saint Paul's East Side. At first I became a little discouraged as the skies clouded up and temperatures remained a bit on the cool side. I considered riding just to Lake Gervais and returning home. But the sun came out as I arrived at Lake Gervais so I continued on. I completed a Five Lake Tour. This is only half of the more usual Ten Lake Tour but I did not have the Guest Rider with me. Today's rule is that half as many people out bike touring only have to visit half as many lakes.

This is Lake Gervais from the east shore. The sun had ducked back behind the clouds at this point but fishing was going on in that boat out on the lake.I continued on to the east and discovered that there is something over there called Spoon Lake. I have ridden past this spot before but either the sign is new or I never looked at it before.It doesn't really look like a lake to me, it looks more like a wide spot in the creek connecting Gervais and the next lake in the chain. But the sign says Spoon Lake so Spoon Lake it is. My take is that the whole wide spot in the creek thing is vaguely spoon shaped.

This is south shore of Keller lake from the picnic grounds on the west side of Highway 61.I had to do a little cyclocross riding at this point, mounting and dismounting a curb and riding across the grass of the picnic area but I persevered. Here is the south shore of Lake Phalen.Those native plantings along the shoreline were a project worked on by one of GRider's somewhat shirt tail in-laws, someone with the same last name but only by marriage.

The wind was mostly from the east but by the time I was approaching home it had also assumed a slightly southerly component and I felt pretty good as I passed Lake Como which you may know is located southeast of where I live.My legs were still pretty good today although not as good as they have been. My two hour ride today took two hours to ride. Even so I was still on the upper edge of what my normal average speed is so I still think I was doing pretty well. I trace the slight decline in the leg quality to increasing distance from the hot dog extravaganza which is now another full day further into the past.

Even having suggested that my strength comes from hot dogs, I concur in principle with the comment that if it were solely hot dogs that Gus would win the Tour de France. Except that Gus would actually only be a contender. The winner would be one of these guys.That's Joey Chestnut, current world record holder and now three time defending champion of the Nathan's hot dog eating contest on Coney Island, New York, taking the lead over former world record holder and former six time champion Takeru Kobayashi. The signs behind the eaters indicate how many hot dogs they have consumed to this point in the contest and at this point near the end of the contest Chestnut leads 65-62 on his way to a new world record of 68 hot dogs, including buns, in 10 minutes. Gus may be a local legend but I don't think there is any possible way that Gus would be able to compete with these world renowned eating legends.

Another sub two hour ride

I reinforced my status as a bike geek today. I was reading the VeloNews report on today's Tour de France stage and came across this:

"The wind changes — and so does the race.

Suddenly, as a corner transformed the breeze into a crosswind, Columbia went to echelon, gave it the gas and split the bunch."

And I knew instantaneously, without having to refer to context or to any other source material, just exactly what was being described. I have already formed a mental image of what it looked like, an image that I will be confirming shortly when I see that moment of the stage on the taped coverage of the race. Yes, I taped it, doesn't everyone?

Armstrong is up to third overall but more importantly, he is up to first overall among those considered to be legitimate GC contenders. He means to win.

It may be necessary to get GRider to confirm this, but before the race started she asked me how I thought Lance would do this year and I said I thought he would win. I cannot claim any particular brilliance in this prediction, however, as no less an authority than Phil Liggett predicted before the race that Lance would be on the podium, finishing in the top three.

I rode after work today and had a nice ride. I felt pretty strong, once again finishing my two hour ride in just under two hours. Quite near the end of the ride I ventured onto the Fairgrounds. I am not sure what event was held there this past weekend but it seems obvious that some of the food vendors opened for business. This one is going to be disappointed when they discover that when they closed up and left the grounds they forgot to turn off the neon sign.That's going to cut into the profit margin.

Bicycle news

Today was another of those days where it was pretty nice all morning but where the overcast rolled in shortly after noon and it looks like rain after 4pm. Oh, wait, that's not a problem any more.

As previously promised, here's the other Odd Fellows Hall that I ride past with regularity.Tom Zirbel and Kristin Armstrong continue to lead the local bicycle stage race, the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Meanwhile the major leagues of professional bicycling is holding a race in France this week, the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. This is the final tune up for most of the major stars of the sport before next month's Tour de France. It is notable, in part, because the race often climbs many of the same mountains that are climbed often in the Tour. At this point in the race the leader is Alejandro Valverde with Cadel Evans second and Alberto Contador in third.

This year's race on Thursday went over the Col de la Madeleine from the far easier northern side (only a Category 4) before the stage had a mountaintop finish on the out of category climb up Mont Ventoux, the Giant of Provence. Today's stage was dominated by the hors categorie climb of the Col d'Izoard. Tomorrow's stage features the hors categorie climbs of the Col du Galibier and the Col de la Croix de Fer with a just for good measure second whack at la Madeleine, this time from the hard side, although substantially tempered by a finish five kilometers from the top. Sunday's finale has only a category 1 as its hardest climb but the stage (and the race) end in the very mountainous sounding Grenoble.

Le Tour de France begins July 4 with an individual time trail 15 kilometers in length within the Principality of Monaco.

Riding after dark

Fall. Dark. And cold. It was 53 when I set out today.

I got a little bit of a late start. I tried not to ride very far but I felt good. I rode a bit too far and it got dark. All of the cars with headlights on dark. The street lights actually illuminating street corners dark.

The last couple of miles of the ride were pretty dark. Particularly the .12 miles that I have to ride on Fairview to get from virtually any route home to the head of my street, that fraction of a mile was too dark.

But I am home. I felt good.

In other items of interest to bicyclists, this is actually yesterday's news but another Tour de France jersey winner has tested positive (or actually non-negative). This time it is Bernhard Kohl, this year's winner of the mountains classification (the spotty jersey). I haven't seen any announcement of the official disqualification but it has to come.

So here's the deal as I see it. Kohl was the winner as of the end of the race, yellow jersey winner Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck were tied for second. As you know by now, Schleck is already under suspicion for sending 7,000 Euros to a well known doping doctor he claims he had never met as some sort of I'll be coming to see you gift. It seems inevitable that Schleck will be DQ'd at some point in the future.

Sastre rides for the same team as Frank. The team leader, Bjarne Riis, has admitted that he doped when he was a rider. Sastre had that extremely suspicious Tour de France result where a pure climber has the time trial of his life to secure his position as race leader (see the whole sorry saga of Michael Rasmussen for further illustration of this phenomenon).

So, let's recap. First place finisher has already been tossed out. Second and third seem likely to follow. The fourth place finisher will have to be declared to be the winner.

In anticipation of this moment I present to you all, but particularly to his biggest fan, Ms. Wireless, the probable winner of the 2008 Tour de France spotty jersey: Thomas VoecklerRichard Virenque will be proud.

French pancakes

I rode through the Fairgrounds again today. Hey, French girl, what do you think of this?Actually, I already asked her. She said some of the le Menu items are distinctly not very French but that the banana and chocolate seems pretty Frenchy. And they also have Nutella. The stand is located kitty corner from the DNR building, just around the corner from the big yellow slide.

Earlier I rode past Lake Owasso. There was a drowning there yesterday at about 2pm. We were there at around 11am and based on the newspaper story and what I saw at the lake today I am certain that the group of four young people we saw getting their boat ready for a day of water recreation are the group from which one person drowned. The body has not been recovered yet. If the picture taken yesterday had been taken this afternoon you would see a sheriff's boat cruising up and down that shoreline with two deputies peering into the shallow water. Out in the deeper water there are several buoys marking a search area and a couple of diver buoys indicating divers in the water. The divers' main boat would be just off the photo to the right. The area down the shoreline to the left was covered with deputies and cameras. A yellow tape stretched from tree to tree designates the entire shore as a restricted police area.

The young people were getting ready to ride on "Big Mable", an inflatable raft. I looked it up on the internet. There are several places on Big Mable where you can hitch the tow rope. At least one of them would result in Big Mable more or less up on its tail in a pretty agressive mode. Hitting a wake after making a sharp turn at speed in that mode would almost certainly overturn the raft. I think that is what happened. The raft overturned, the young man hit the water hard, the force of impact knocked him unconscious, he drowned before regaining his senses.

VeloNews today has an article about a German guy who claims that a careful analysis of documents made public by the Operacion Puerto investigation of blood doping in Spain reveals information detailing the doping program followed by Alberto Contador. Velonews also reports that 16th place finisher Iban Mayo has tested positive for EPO. He also was reported to have tested positive at the Giro, for testoserone, but was cleared of wrongdoing at that time by the UCI. Is there any solution?

I highly recommend the TdF posting at FatCyclist. He has a doping analysis written by a medical doctor which is quite interesting and which offers a reasonable solution.

And finally, a game which no site seemed to know in advance when it was to be played actually occurred on Monday. The game story on the FC Nantes website says the game was shifted by the league. I guess this makes sense for TV purposes. Even France has Monday Night Football.

Nantes 5, Reims 0. Nicolas Goussé, a striker in his first year with the club, scored three goals, the first at 9 minutes, then two quickly at 50 and 56 minutes early in the second half. Mamadou Bagayoko, a native of Mali and a former player for Nantes, returned to the Canaries after last year playing in Qatar. He scored the other two for Nantes. A capacity crowd of more than 27,000 fans looked on.

Allez Nantes.

Fit and fast

TOPWLH was busy with her job this morning. Wireless is visiting but she will readily admit that I am an earlier riser than she is. So I went out early for a ride assigning the VCR the duty of facilitating TdF viewership for the today's time trial. I rode to the Cathedral.You probably think that is the Capital, not the Cathedral, and you would be right. However that stone wall in the foreground is the side of the front steps of the Cathedral. So this would be the Capital as photographed from the Cathedral.

The Cathedral is a longish ride for me but it went really well today. I have ridden lots of miles the last two months and as a result I declare myself fit. It was a long ride but it was also one of the fastest of the year. I was fit and fast and therefore am ready for vacation, where as Cuppy says, there will be no riding without Gene.

French girl and I watched the time trial after my return. Well, that was exciting. It made for fine TV, to be sure, but it also served to reinforce my feelings about this year's race. They should not recognize an individual champion this year, the results have been so skewed by the efforts of those who have been dismissed from the race that there just is not any way to know if the time differences separating the top three riders are in any way indicative of the actual differences among those three as racers. There just isn't any way to know. The best thing to do, even at this late date, is to recognize tri-champions. Particularly Cadel and Levi deserve nothing less.

Carnival comes to town

The brutal heat wave seems to have finally abated. It has seemed a lot like July around here lately and I guess that figures. With the waning of July comes the season of community carnivals and fairs. I came across a carnival on my ride today.This set up is in Island Lake Park in Shoreview. It looks like it may be a good place to avoid tomorrow and Sunday when the carnival will presumably be in full swing.

The Tour was treading water today in anticipation of the ride of truth, the individual time trial set to run tomorrow. It is apparent that not every remaining participant thinks the race is finally clean. Here's a quote from cyclingnews:

"In a heartfelt and brutally honest statement, Belgian superstar Tom Boonen said yesterday that, of those remaining in this year's race, he picked Cadel Evans as one of the riders he still trusts. 'I have given up my belief in most of the rest," he confessed. "It is possible to ride the Tour without doping, and to ride and win too. Cadel Evans proves in my eyes that you could win it without doping.'

For his part, Evans was noncommittal, saying, 'Unfortunately there's no prize for the first clean rider.'"

I, for one, note that although these riders do not actually come right out and say so, it is pretty clear that neither one of them seems to think that Contador is clean.

Allez Cadel.

According to the FC Nantes website the regular season was supposed to kick off today against Stade de Reims. However, according to the Reims website the game is not until Tuesday. The Reims site also indicates that the game is on TV so perhaps it has been delayed for the benefit of TV. This strikes me as possible as this is a meeting of former giants. Reims was the outstanding team of French football in the 50s and into the early 60s and was champion of France six times, the last time in 1962, and two time winner of the Coupe de France. Nantes took over from Reims as the preeminent team of the later 60s and has been champion of France eight times beginning in 1965, most recently in 2001, and three time winner of the Coupe de France. So perhaps this a match up that might strike the fancy of the French TV sports watching public in the first week of Ligue 2, especially considering that Ligue 1 does not kick off until next week. The game is at Nantes.

Contador in yellow

I found a page at L'Equipe where rider reactions to the events of yesterday are posted. It is in French which is not my native tongue but I think I understand well enough the basic meaning.

This is Sébastien Hinault, a Frenchman riding for Crédit Agricole:

Je pense que Evans ferait un meilleur vainqueur du Tour que Contador. Evans, on le voit souffrir en montagne, on voit le rictus. C'est pas l'impression qu'on donné Rasmussen et Contador.

I believe that Hinault says that he thinks Evans would make a better winner of the Tour than Contador. You can see that Evans suffers in the mountains, you can see it in his face. You do not get the same impression from Rasmussen and Contador.

I join Hinault in rooting for Cadel.

Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie. Oi, Oi, Oi.

Rabobank sacks Rasmussen, Tour leader out of race

And so, as I wished, justice has been served at the Col d'Aubisque. Not at all in the way I imagined, but justice has been served.

Now in Saturday's time trial Evans and Leipheimer will contend for the championship of the clean version of le Tour.

As to Contador, I say about him what I said about young Schleck in the Giro. He is young. It is an endurance sport. Endurance sports do not usually reward the young, they reward the fully mature and strong. Contador is young.

Contador is in his first year with Team Discovery Channel. Last year he rode for Astana.

There is no way to rescue the race for this year. For this year the results are hopelessly corrupted. The contenders have not raced against each other, they have raced against phantoms who have now gone. There isn't any way to reconstruct what might have been. The race is corrupt, they should stop it.

But they won't stop it and so on Saturday the final time trial matches two riders who appear to be clean in a final showdown. Did you happen to see Evans after the finish at Aubisque? If he is on drugs he needs much better drugs. He looked to be in agony. Did you see Leipheimer? He looked to be completely and totally used up.

It is a corrupt race this year but these two appear to be the best of the clean and perhaps they can, in the end, provide a tiny bit of dignity for this most embarrassed sporting endeavor.

Le Tour goes dark

In horse racing a day on which the track does not hold races is referred to as the track "going dark". Today the Tour de France went dark as on a scheduled rest day there was no racing. Unfortunately that is not the only way in which the Tour went dark.

Tour leader Rasmussen is under increasing pressure but instead it was emotional leader Vinokourov who fell from grace. My rant about doping after the time trial turns out to be accurate after all. Vino produced the phenomenal effort with the aid of illegal blood doping. He was subject to post-stage drug testing and when the results became available today Vino was dismissed from the race. The Astana team was also given the opportunity to withdraw from the race and did so.

It puts a whole new light on the race results of the last three days of racing. It was doping that allowed Vino to win the time trial. The collapse of the next day came about, in my estimation, because Vino expected, based on his previous experience, that the effect of the doping would last more than one day. When it did not he suffered on the first day in the Pyrenees. What did Vino do about this? My guess is that he took another transfusion and thus fortified won Monday's stage. By so doing Vino displayed complete and utter contempt for his sport, his race contemporaries, and perhaps most significantly, for the people who have throughout his career stood along the road and cheered him on. Bad form, Vino, bad form.

The race is completely corrupt, they should stop it.

It was very hot again today, another 70 dew point. But evaporative cooling continues to work pretty well. It was a bit less effective today as I actually broke a sweat on my arms and shoulders. Perhaps because of the miracle fabric of the jersey my torso stayed dry.

I saw the tall bike guy again today, in fact, for the second day in a row. We exchange greeting waves but I have not yet had a reasonable opportunity to get a picture.

I did get a picture of this, the clubhouse at the Les Bolstad University Golf Course. The University of Minnesota is a member of the Big Ten Conference. The flags on the front of the clubhouse represent the eleven member schools of the conference.I also won a race today. We weren't racing, either myself or the young lady who I was riding faster than on the long uphill on Como past the Fairgrounds. I pulled up behind her without great difficulty and held on without trouble. I stayed back four or five bike lengths as I did not want to creep her out but I think I failed in that attempt. Finally at the top of the hill she took a glance, spotted me, perhaps for the second time, got into the drops and hammered off on the downhill. I let her go. She was faster and I wasn't racing. But she was young, fit, had a nice bike, a good rider, and I hung with her on the uphill. I assign myself climber points.

Dope blah blah blah

More of the same today, dope blah blah blah.

VeloNews is the leading road cycling periodical in North America. Here are a few of the things VeloNews is reporting:

"Rasmussen appears to be in prime position to claim what might turn out to be a suspicion-laden Tour victory . . .", and

"Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme said Saturday that organizers could have refused to allow Michael Rasmussen to compete in this year's race if they had known that he had missed several random doping tests in the past two years.", and

Another headline says that David Millar has said that Rasmussen has ruined the Tour. Millar was quoted in L'Equipe as saying: "It is unacceptable that Rasmussen did not manage to give notice of his whereabouts. It is understandable he had problems communicating his address from Mexico, but it is up to him to make sure his federation receives notification.

"He started the race knowing what would happen but did nothing to rectify the situation and now we are all screwed, and the Tour is in the shit. He took no notice of warnings from the UCI (cycling's world governing body) though he deserved to be punished.

"He has either been unprofessional or has used the system."

And this one: Pressure building on Rasmussen . . . on and off the bike. Good stuff in there about the Dutch journalists shouting down an effort to broadcast a videotaped message. Rabobank is, of course, a Dutch team. An "increasingly antagonistic media" indeed. Somehow, in spite of all this, Phil, Paul and Bobke continue to mindlessly cheerlead as though there were no controversy.

In today's stage Rasmussen once again displayed no signs of the fatigue that is present in all of the pre-race favorites. One can only hope that somehow, someway, justice will be served at the Col d'Aubisque.

As for me, it was 84 with a dew point of 70 when I got home. In addition there was an early in the day Air Quality advisory, the usual avoid strenuous exercise advice. In addition, thunderstorms which appeared likely most of the day seemed on the verge of breaking out at last. I had a very nice ride. At 19 miles the sun broke through and I got this nice picture of golfing.The picture is significant not because of the golf, that person visible just behind the flag hit the ball which is about to go off the green and the photo there on the right. Bad shot. No the photo is significant because that hill that the golfers just came down is the local sliding hill. The time I remember the best was Wireless and Julie and Laura but I am pretty sure we were also there once with Sarah Crosby.

I am not too sure about this other one but I really liked the orange flowers.I had stopped to get a picture of the sliding hill. These bushes line the fence right at that point of the golf course. I don't think it came out very well, but you get the idea I am sure: orange flowers.

Doper assumes commanding lead

Today's stage served to reinforce my belief that the Tour leader is not riding clean. But at least it made for very compelling TV.

We watched on tape. The early morning weather was very threatening so I went for an early morning ride. It was overcast, always threatening, and quite cool. I added a layer, an extra t-shirt, for the first time in a couple of months and rode.

Here is another place that is not very far from home but to which I almost never ride. This is Midway Stadium, home of the Saint Paul Saints of the American Association independent league. If you look carefully you can find a Snoopy, a dinosaur and two pigs.I almost never ride there because the stadium is located on very bicycle unfriendly streets. There is only a debris covered concrete gutter next to two heavily travelled traffic lanes. But on Sunday morning traffic was not an issue.

Yesterday TT was over. Anyone who has followed his photography trajectory knows that he likes these trick shots, having executed many of them over his career. I apologize for screwing this one up.The focus is not very good.

Edit: I have reviewed the final results table at cyclingnews and I admit that perhaps I was a bit harsh on Vino in yesterday's rant. I said that his finish smacked of doping. I ranted on that if he was not doping then he would have to fail today, completely unable to produce anything approaching yesterday's effort. The final results table shows that finishers number 87 through 164 of a total of 165 finishers came in the "autobus" or "grupetto", all riding together and finishing 34.52 behind the top two. This approximately half of all riders in the stage were not actually ever trying to do anything other than finish. They made no competitive effort on this day, they did not try to win or even place highly. Vino finished 81st and next to last in a group of 7 that included 2 other Astana riders probably sent to ride with him and get him to the finish. Also in the group was former yellow jersey wearer Linus Gerdemann. They finished 28.50 after the winners. Of those who competed and tried to win Vino was very nearly last. The finish that Vino had today is the finish that should be expected if yesterday he was an injured rider competing on adrenaline and not on drugs.

Doper retains Tour lead

It was a little cool for a ride early this morning so instead we watched the time trial live. I am very disappointed.

With Liggett and Sherwin rooting pretty openly for him, the current dope leader produced a completely unexpected and unexplainable ride and retained the lead in the Tour de France. According to Phil and Paul and also to Rasmussen's comments after the stage, we are supposed to believe that somehow being in yellow completely rendered a lifetime of time trial results no longer relevant, that merely by donning a shirt he became what he has never before, even a single time in his life, been, a competent time trial rider. Sorry, I don't buy it.

No less an authority than Bernard Hinault predicted that Rasmussen would lose about 4 seconds per kilometer to his closest rivals. Instead, over 55 kilometers, the Chicken actually finished ahead of the former 2nd and 3rd placed riders. He lost time to only 4 of the remaining 7 contenders. He lost 3 seconds to Leipheimer, 37 seconds to Contador, 76 seconds to Klöden, and 101 seconds to Evans. His lifetime results caused a multiple time former winner to predict that he would drop about 220 seconds to each of his rivals, instead he dropped a total 217 seconds to four rivals. The man is not riding clean.

The latest accusations, apparently only reported in full in VeloNews are that Rasmussen has used a blood substitute. The substitute is intended for use in dogs and/or cows. It is apparently a treatment for anemia in dogs. This, of course, mirrors the legitimate human use of EPO. The man is not riding clean.

With the wind dictating direction, the riding companion dictating distance and a third criterion which the Babe will have to describe largely limiting destination, we ended up at Minnehaha Falls. This photo is from the bridge over the creek just above the falls, looking down into the creek gorge.On the way home, believe it or not, we came across another unicyclist. This one was a kid and still not as competent at riding a single wheel as was yesterday's rider. The kid was coming to the curb cut at the end of the block as we neared the top of the hill on Como east of Snelling when he obeyed the instructions printed on my bicycle frame and looked at us instead of where he was riding. Down he went. He bounced right up, the young don't hurt themselves in a fall of such short distance.

The corn continues its amazing progress.The Babe is in there for scale but I just don't know if we can use this angle any more. She has disappeared into the stalks and leaves and if I let her keep going in there I am afraid that she will not be able to find her way out.

So we may have to start using this angle to measure progress.I hasten to point out that it was not I who peeled the husk back on this ear of corn. It's not my corn, I would not damage someone else's crop. But this one is right on the edge of the field and pretty clearly shows that ears have formed.

Unicycle guy

Boy, I tell you, today was nice.

I rode over to the river and for a change had a very pleasant experience over there. At the river every single male rider is racing and it usually gets a little old. But apparently I was there at the right time today as there were not many of them about and I was free to just ride along without having to be constantly alert for yet another one of those posers overtaking without a word. I know, I understand that they are only mirroring racing etiquette. But I just wonder where the hell they get the confidence that I am going to hold a straight line which allows them to come within a few inches of my handlebars. Because I tell you, I do not hold a straight line. I am not racing, I am taking care of my bike. Which means I ride around potholes, not through, around road debris, not over. I am not holding a straight line. End of rant. What I really mean to say is, boy, I tell you, today was nice.

I saw a guy riding a unicycle. I tried to ride fast to get far enough ahead of him so that I could get a picture but was unsuccessful. I got ahead but he motored past well before I could prepare for a photo. So I got back on and followed and eventually caught and passed him in the hills. Hills are a problem both going up and going down for a unicycle. Obviously you cannot coast downhill, you have to keep pedalling. I actually passed him on the downhill. Downhill looks harder. Anyway, by then it was time for me to turn off and approach the giant climb out of the river gorge so I had to abandon the photo opportunity. Take my word for it, there was a guy on a unicycle riding at the river today.

The boys on the Tour greatly disappointed me today. Rasmussen is suspended by his national federation and Paul, Phil, and Bob all lined up behind the rider. Eventually even Al, the reporter of the group, joined in the federation bashing. They claim cycling politics, that the Danish federation as part of the UCI is only trying to wrest control of the sport from the old guard, the grand tour organizers.

Lame.

Really lame.

The only thing suspicious here is that a rider claiming the advantages of being clean cannot organize his life as required by the rules of the federation which rewards him for being clean. It is just plain bullshit to say anything else. He knew the rules, he dodged the tests. Dirty.

Boy, I tell you, today was nice. It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood and after missing out on the unicycle I hoped to find the Babe at home as this was my next preferred photo of the day, something from our backyard.It may look casual but it is actually very carefully posed.

FC Nantes has completed playing friendlies in anticipation of the Ligue 2 season opener on July 27. They drew and lost against Ligue 1 opponents, defeated a team from the Championnat National, also known as Division 3, and today dropped their only outing against a fellow Ligue 2 participant. Not a particularly auspicious pre-season but they were after all only friendlies. Allez Nantes, the season begins next week against Reims.

Agriculture Open House

I was riding by the farm campus. They had cars parked in a newly harvested grain field and signs up announcing "Agriculture Open House". I rode in a bit, close enough to see what was going on, but not so close that I would have been in conflict with the pedestrians. They were offering tours of the research plots, they had bleachers set up for presentations, they had tents set up for dinner, there was a new equipment display, all in all it reminded me of a county fair, right there in the shadow of the state fair.

I got this picture of the "Seed of Knowledge". It is a 22 foot tall permanent artwork. It tilts back and opens at the top. There is a tree planted in the center which presumably will eventually embellish the overall display. The "Seed" is located across from the flower gardens pictured a couple of days ago.

The Tour was pretty interesting for a flat day. Two days ago we learned that Vinokourov is not going to win the Tour. Today Vino responded and made his presence known by orchestrating the disintegration of the peloton in a cross wind, a move from which we learned that French national champion Christophe Moreau is not going to win the Tour. The field is reduced to about eight remaining with a realistic shot at winning. Discovery still has two. By the end of Sunday's stage the eight will be reduced by at least a couple more, perhaps reduced all the way to one.

It is hard to be a fan in the face of the continuing scandals but there just is not any doubt that the race produces compelling theater.

Rest day

Very heavy rain moved through at about 3pm creating a rest day.

This also allowed me to catch up on le Tour.

Right now I think my prediction for the finish is the exact same prediction that I made before the race began. The three favorites to me look to be Evans, Leipheimer and Klöden. Evans is currently the best placed on GC off a good performance in the Alps, he is a strong time trial rider and his team is without the distraction of also having to prepare to help McEwen in the sprints. Klöden is a strong time trial rider, looks to be riding through the injury and rides for one of the very best teams, a team which will be looking for redemption for itself and for its injured team leader, Vinokourov. Leipheimer has always said that his best chances will come in the Pyrenees, that those mountains suit his style better than the Alps. He is a strong time trial rider, riding for a team which suddenly looks to have multiple contenders for the lead. Popovych, Gusev and Hincapie are all strong support riders, Popovych's results to this point good enough that he probably is still harboring GC thoughts for himself. Leipheimer is the team leader but even he must be impressed by the emergence of Contador. In an interview with VeloNews, no less a source than CSC's Dave Zabriskie says Contador is the man to beat. Discovery looks very strong.

And what of Rasmussen? He is sure to lose time in the time trial. He must limit his losses and try to gain more time in the Pyrenees. However, he is now a marked man, the other contenders will not let him go in a breakaway with lesser riders as they did the first day in the Alps. If Rasmussen goes now everyone who considers himself a contender must go with him. It will be very difficult for Rasmussen to have another day where he gains big time.

My choice now is my choice before the race began, Cadel Evans. Evans is currently fourth but only the extra seconds in time bonus awarded to Valverde for the finish after Galibier boost Valverde into second overall. Mayo is third but leads Evans by only two seconds. If Rasmussen falters in the race against the clock, Evans seems best positioned to assume the lead. It is now too close to call, but my choice is Evans.

The big days coming up now look to be Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is the a 54 km time trial which includes a category 4 climb. This is obviously a stage critical for all of the current leaders and contenders. Sunday is the first day in the Pyrenees, an extremely difficult day of climbing. The stage begins with a category 2 climb but the real test begins three hours later with a beyond category climb, a descent, and almost immediately the beyond category climb to Plateau de Beille, 16 km at an average gradient of nearly 8 percent, for a mountaintop finish. This is the most difficult summit finish of the Tour and the stage winner could well be the overall winner of the race the following Sunday in Paris.

I love the Tour. Here is the site of the conclusion of the race:As photographed by me from the top of this:That's The Babe and The Guide in the foreground.

Another idyllic day at Vadnais

I was up early because of the extended coverage of today's TdF stage which began at 6am local time. I was up a bit before that surfing the net. I knew the cyclingnews site would not have live coverage that early so I was looking at Eurosport UK. When you log onto Eurosport they ask you what your location is. If you answer USA you get the usual array of extremely American sport, mostly baseball and fantasy football. On that page I answer UK and get choices from among the various sports that actually interest me.

I noticed that TdF coverage hadn't begun even at Eurosport yet but that was expectable because the stage did not formally begin until 5:45 local time. Versus made the decision to expand the show and yet instead of expanding the show only another 15 minutes to show the actual complete stage, Versus made the decision to come on the air after the stage started. They then did that stupid Trautwig/Bobke show until 6:15 and only finally then joined the stage in progress having missed the first climb. It is absolutely insulting having those people making decisions for me about what I want to watch. I believe the solution for me is to move to France.

I also noticed that Eurosport had some interesting graphics not available even on cyclingnews. They had a listing of GC contenders and time gaps actual and then a listing of only those people who actually had a chance to win the bicycle race and the time gaps, this time measured from the first among that group, Klöden. Much more actually useful information.

TOPWLH appeared some time later and we watched the live coverage together until the top of the first category 1 climb. It was getting pretty nice out so at that point we turned the race over to the VCR and went for a ride ourselves. It was another idyllic day at Lake Vadnais. This is a slightly different angle than I have offered before and as you can see, it is nice there.It has been 11 days since the last corn picture and the corn is still doing great. As mentioned previously, the first several pictures were taken while I was seated, the most recent from my knees. For this one I had to stand.Babe for scale. Can you find her? It is almost like Waldo. The corn has tasseled out and the ears are forming, the silk has appeared.

Then we came home and watched the rest of the stage on tape. It was a bad day for Australia in general, for sure, but a good enough day for my Aussie, Cadel Evans. The heads of state were too cautious again and I fear that they may have given Rasmussen too much time. I also fear that he may get even more time in some of the mountain stages to come but if the race is still close enough for the two remaining individual time trials to affect the outcome then Evans could still win. I have this vivid mental picture of Rasmussen in polka dots falling off his bike over and over again the last time he was in contention when the final time trial was run. The race is not yet over.

Did anyone else notice that Vino appeared to be bleeding from the knee soaking through his shorts there at the end? The team chose to have Klöden wait for Vino and try to bring him to the line with as little time lost as possible. By his gesture at the line it seemed clear that Vino recognized and appreciated that Klöden had sacrificed. The race is not yet over.

Today was fun.