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.

500th post

It turns out that Wireless was right, this whole biking thing IS totally bloggable.

And sometimes it can be shared.

Her stated ride parameters were always 60s and sunny and today those conditions rolled around. We got her bike down, pumped the tires, and TOPWLH set out on her first ride of the year. For the second of three bikes that I have prepared for the season this one came out of the rafters with a dead battery in the computer. Undaunted, she agreed to ride without one today. Without the odometer to distract her she rode 19+ miles, a noteworthy, even admirable effort on the first time out for the season.That's Island Lake. We ride past it all the time but I do not recall ever previously stopping for a photo, Babe for scale. As is evident in the photo, she rides a Bianchi.

On the way out there I saw this out of the corner of my eye causing us to circle around and go back for a photo. This is something you just don't see every day, a tennis court without any lines.I am sure that the explanation is that step 1 of re-surfacing is complete and that they will be coming around in the next few days to put the lines back on. Family history includes a chapter centered around painting lines on a tennis court, I leave that telling to one of the senior members of the clan. For some reason they always seem to have a more mature recollection of these events than I do.

This morning I saw the neighbor's cardinal in our back yard. I say the neighbor's cardinal because they are the ones who provide habitat and feed. The pair of birds do visit our yard with some regularity.I discovered that when my camera is set to AUTO that the digital zoom still works. This is a surprise, the flash has stopped working and the other functions seem to be disappearing one by one. The manual zoom still works but I thought the digital was gone. I was shooting on the P setting because . . . Well, I forget why I was shooting on the P setting but when you move it back to AUTO you get the digital zoom back.

Just a little tidbit of mostly useless trivia.

Maybe a bit less adrenaline

Last Saturday we had five rabbits and a cardinal all in our yard at once. No such wildlife infestation was evident today but TOPWLH does have an interesting story about squirrels that everyone must try and get her to tell.

What I did find in the back yard was another sign of spring, the first sign in our yard of the new growing season, buds on the bush next to the deck.I noticed that my 10 percent post from last year included the description of ice out at Lake Vadnais. I felt sooo good yesterday that I decided to institute another part of the mid season training regimen, the long ride on Saturday. I set off for Lake Vadnais.

Today was several degrees cooler than yesterday and we all know that riding is harder when it is cooler. Then also I may have been a tiny bit pumped yesterday to get out on my nice bike. The long ride was a hard ride. I lost about a half of one of those two mph I was bragging about yesterday. But it also could be related to the fact that I DID get in the longest ride yet this season, hitting 30 miles for the first time.

The ice is completely out at Vadnais so I missed that this year. But I got this photo of some insane pussy willow looking bush in full dress at the edge of the lake.Other information: The A&W on Rice Street is open. Oh, and Rice Street is a state highway. City streets were the first ones swept, followed by county highways, but the state highways are still unswept. Rice Street is a mess.

Nice looked to be the ideal opponents for FC Nantes at this stage of the season. Nice is mid-table and have little to play for in the last six weeks of the season. Nice is well safe from relegation but also now too far off the top seven places to mount a challenge for a finish in the places which enter those teams in prestigious and potentially lucrative European competitions next season. Les Canaris were of course desperate for a victory after slipping into the relegation zone last weekend.

And at this evening's match at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes the home team was able to make the most of their opportunity, winning 2-0. Nantes vaults out of "la zone de relégation" to stand once again 16th of the 20 Ligue 1 teams. Both Caen and Souchaux were losers today and both slipped behind Nantes, Caen assuming the spot in the drop zone.

Chore

Today I finished off that three straight days of 20+ miles that I was hoping to do last weekend. I didn't get it done after deciding last Saturday that it was too cold. Today was also too cold. Mission accomplished, chore completed.

All of the miles that I ride on the spring bike are hard work. That is part of the reason for having that bike. The low pressure tires make for more rolling resistance, a harder task to maintain speed and pile up miles. So I am going to blame the bike for today's ride being hard. It was really hard, for the second time this spring I was running out of gas on the inward leg.

I made the northern swing into that persistent cold north wind but tried to find a different route back. This is Lake Josephine from across the street from where Allison used to work (the Dairy Queen).It's too cold, it's too hard to ride this bike, woe is me, woe is me.

Nah, actually I love my bike. As always, once the ride was over I started to feel pretty chipper. Tired, but chipper.

Shout out to French Canada, hope you arrived safely and maybe even already had some fun.

Bon Anniversaire TOPWLH

I know what your favorite thing to have for your birthday would be. In place of that I offer a photo of her namesake lake. Ice out on Lake Emily:And I also offer a short story. Wireless called last night during the baseball game. She demonstrated to me that sometimes coaching actually takes even if it seems at the time of the coaching as though no one is listening.

Wireless wanted to report that some fielder in the major league baseball game she was watching had missed a ground ball as a result of the ball going OVER his glove.

Flash back to softball practice.

We went through this ritual countless times after a ground ball went through the legs of a fielder:

Coach: "Over your glove or under your glove?"

Slightly exasperated player: "Under."

Coach: "Do more balls go over your glove or under?"

Slightly exasperated player: "Under."

Coach: "Many, many more balls go under your glove than over. So what do we do?"

Slightly exasperated player: "We keep out gloves down."

Coach: "Fingers in the dirt."

I was recognized on today's ride by another member of the County Cycles staff. Today it was Dan, out riding on his fixed gear who called out after we had met and passed on opposite sides of the road, "Hey, Gene!"

Hi, Dan. Sorry I didn't recognize you until I heard your voice. I maybe should have recognized your bike. I was remarking to myself before we passed that the set up looked vaguely familiar.

Pay forward

It was about 5 degrees warmer today than yesterday and the western sky was cloudless. That sun thing really works. It demonstrated its power again today and the ride was only cold, instead of too cold.

Street sweeping has begun. I was a bit surprised about 2.5 miles into today's ride to come upon clean streets. Then shortly thereafter I came upon the actual sweeper. And then on the way home I ended up riding on streets left wet by the sweeping process. Sweeping is a good sign but it doesn't mean that my summer bike will be coming out any time soon. The total amount of my 22 mile ride that was swept was less than a mile and some of the rest of the ride was still pretty heavily sand covered.

Today I tried to put 20+ mile rides back to back for the first time this year. It is a little early in the season for that and I felt my lack of fitness. On the inward leg I needed a little pop to conquer one of the numerous upgrades and it was a huge chore to summon the energy. But if the weather holds I will probably go out tomorrow shortly after noon and try to make it 20+ miles back to back to back.

The turn around point was at Grass Lake. This is a little different angle than other photos of this lake.This photo shows what the problem is with Grass Lake: it is right exactly immediately adjacent to the freeway. But the water level is up and with the brilliant blue sky and blue water I still think it makes a nice photo.

Just after passing the Library on the way home I came upon a forlorn looking occasional rider. She was stopped in the middle of the street gazing uncomprehendingly at the drive train of her hybrid. I slowed and asked if she needed any help, bicyclist's code and all, and she immediately responded in the affirmative.

She was pretty old, which TOPWLH and I increasingly notice means that she was probably a bit younger than I am. She reported that she could not turn the pedals forward. I looked at her rear wheel for a bit and finally figured out that her chain had jumped off the pulley between the rear wheel gears and the derailer. This is almost always a result of pedaling while shifting.

I suggested that she try to back pedal and indeed, that freed up the binding chain, allowing it to remount the pulley. Then I used her shift lever (friction shift, thumb levers on the handlebars) to move the derailer back over to where the chain was still engaging the cassette. I then held the rear wheel off the ground while she forward pedaled enough to get everything back into operating condition. I told her that she should be fine to get home as long as she did not put any heavy pressure on the pedals when in the process of shifting. She gazed back completely, totally without a shred of understanding. But we got her back on the road and I followed her for a block or so. The bicycle was functioning again and I am pretty sure she probably made it home OK. I base this partly on the way she was dressed. The clothes she was wearing were not going to be warm enough for a very long ride, I doubt that she was more than 3 or 4 blocks from home.

I am Bicycle Repairman, hear me roar.

S.m.u.g.

The temperature today after work was about the same as yesterday so I decided to give it a try. Conclusion: that Sun thing makes a huge difference in what it feels like out there. Today was cold.

And gray.

But today I really do feel smug. I saw only one other bicyclist while I was riding. That guy was a commuter, bundled up, sporting a rear rack and bag. I was the one and only recreational cyclist out there. S.m.u.g., that's me.

I still felt a compulsion even on a day when natural conditions offered no contrast, only shades of gray, to find a photo opportunity. So, here is a lake: Como.Gray?

Somewhere out there on the edge of the ice in the middle of the lake is an eagle. I noticed it as I rode down along the east shore of the lake after taking the picture. I tried to find an angle where I could get a picture but that eagle was out in the middle of the lake. When the camera equipment that you have available is equipment that was originally selected because it is relatively inexpensive and it fits in your bicycle jersey pocket, well, you have limited options for trying to capture difficult shots. No matter what I did that eagle was going to be, at best, a black spot in the distance upon which you could possibly discern a white head. So go ahead and try to find that on what I have posted, or better yet, imagine it. An eagle on Lake Como is a pretty cool deal.

I ride on days like today when it is hard so that when the weather is finally nice enough to ride I will be fit enough to ride as much as I want to. Today was a chore, hard work, but miles that in June I will be very glad to have ridden.

Fathers Day circumnavigation

There was fairly vigorous weather blustering after dark yesterday, including a sounding of the sirens. We had some wind and some rain but the worst of it, including whatever it was that triggered the siren, stayed away from here.

Today dawned a bit cool but quickly warmed and has evolved into another one of the nicest days in the history of days.

TOPWLH and her dafter (also mine I hasten to add) went off late this morning to visit with TOPWLH's father and the dafter's grandpapa. Those two seem to be Bud's favorites, I cannot imagine why. They will be here later but I was left free to ride.

Sunday is long ride day. The previous long ride was over to the Bald Eagle Lake area. Today I made that additional left turn off Otter Lake Road and went over to and around Bald Eagle.

I was riding across the north end of the lake, the less developed end. I was idly thinking about how this lake got its name. I guess that someone saw a bald eagle there once. I was thinking to myself that it has probably been a while since there has been a bald eagle sighting at this lake. Just as I was thinking that I rode around a bend in the road and there in the swamp to my left was an eagle platform. The eagles haven't settled in yet but clearly someone other than just me has had the thought about not enough bald eagles at Bald Eagle Lake.

This view is from the east shore, the more developed end.I got to the park in White Bear Lake where I know the water fountains are on and the toilets are open. I had a snack and a thorough hydration. I was sitting there thinking that I was 28 miles into a ride and that 28 miles isn't too bad, it is only a bit farther than my more or less usual ride. But I also was aware that I was still 16 miles from home.

So I planned carefully. I decided to avoid Lake Vadnais and the climb from the lake up to Rice Street. I turned on Centerville Road and was soon closer to home than I would have been for the Vadnais climb and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. But about then I came upon the hill on Western up to County Road B2. I was reminded yet again that it is a zero sum, if you finish at the same spot where you begin your net climbing is zero. And if you ride across that deep glacial valley between where I live and where I rode to today, you are going to have to ride back. Down the hill, up the hill, there just isn't any escape.

I had fun and today's ride is the new longest ride of the year.

Laundry in vain

Yesterday I organized all my winter bike gear and ran it all through the washer and dryer. I optimistically assumed that I would not need the full sleeve base layer, the long sleeve jersey, the tights and the various gloves and mittens.

Guess what?

I wore all of the above except the gloves and added a jacket as well to cope with temperatures in the 50s. My observation is this, however: Last week it was cold and sunny and it felt like a really nice day for early April. Today the sun is so high in the sky that it is unmistakably nearing summer. It felt like an unseasonably cool day in May. I was dressed for it and had a nice ride. I was amused to see many persons out getting some exercise while clearly dressed for Friday. Friday was 80, today was 55. The people who I saw wearing shorts and a sleeveless top just cannot possibly have been warm enough. As for me, I will be running quite a bit of that stuff through the wash again before summer is officially declared to be present.

Today was the long ride and I must admit that actually going somewhere is a lot more fun than riding in circles. I got all the way to the lakes and noticed this view of the Lake Vadnais twin. It framed up nicely so I took a picture.The guide and I were over to County Cycles yesterday to get her a couple of things that she needed to get a bicycle on the road. She asked about this sign and the truth is I have always meant to get a photo. I am pretty sure about this but have no independent confirmation. The signs are still along the tracks in the place where they were placed back when the railroads were the only way to get around. The signs were markers for the train crews. When I worked at the Great Northern signs such as this in the urban core identified junctions (e.g. Minneapolis Junction, Union Yards) and as you moved out from the core the signs identified the location of suburban stations. This is along what was the Soo Line main line (that part I know to be true) and I believe that it identifies the spot where the Roseville Station was located.I know I promised yesterday that French football discussion was being suspended but apparently I lied. There is one game left in the season, Olympique Lyonnais will meet Paris Saint Germain on Saturday at Stade de France for La Coupe de France. Both teams will be going for a double as Lyon has been crowned Ligue 1 champion for the 7th consecutive year while PSG has already captured the League Cup.

Then, and only then, will football turn towards Euro 2008, the European championships. The news here is that France coach Raymond Domenech has named a provisional 30-man squad for the tournament but Juventus striker David Trezeguet is not among the players listed. Trezeguet won the 1998 FIFA World Cup with France, and in the 2000 European Championship scored the golden goal in the final against Italy to give France the title. He also played for France in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups and Euro 2004. Trezeguet was named one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in 2004. His omission from the team comes as a surprise to many but could perhaps be foretold by World Cup 2006 when coach Domenech showed a clear preference for Franck Ribéry in the spot formerly occupied by Trezeguet.

Happy Mothers' Day to TOPWLH

TOPWLH bracketed herself for Mothers' Day, having brunch with her dafter AND her mother. The dafter is a most excellent child and actually the mother is pretty swell too. And TOPWLH. I went for a bicycle ride.

Here in Minnesota we have firmly established that fishing opener occurs the day before Mothers' Day. This means that when I rode past the various lakes on the northern route that there were lots more people in the parks than there were last week and most of them were fishing. Here is an image of Sucker Lake, the usual northernmost point of the 8 lakes tour.People are fishing.

It rained yesterday, really rained which meant that today was the long ride. The long ride took me to places beyond the normal beaten path which enabled me to get a photo of the last or at least nearly last unpictured of the Minnesota Rocks sculptures.This one is at Vadnais Heights City Hall. It seems to me that this one has a bit more elaborate staging than most of the others. For example, the city has ringed the limestone sculpture with nice granite benches, two of which are visible in the photo.

Yesterday in the Giro Christian Vande Velde added himself to the list of Americans who have ever held the leader's jersey in one of the Grand Tours when his Slipstream team won the team time trial and team leader David Millar slipped off the back of the team at the finish to allow Vande Velde to be first across the line. Despite his quite Dutchy sort of name, Vande Velde is an American, born in Illinois. But it is after all, the tour of Italy and today in the first road stage the first five finishers were all Italians and one of them, fourth place finisher Franco Pellizotti of Team Liquigas, gained enough time to take over the lead in the general classification and the Maglia Rosa by a single second over the American.

In French football yesterday, Paris Saint Germain gained a point in the standings by securing a tie at home against Saint Etienne. Relegation rivals Lens and Toulouse were both on the road and both lost as PSG edged up to 16th overall and out of the relegation zone with one game remaining. PSG, RC Lens, and Toulouse FC are all major clubs in France and one of them going down is nearly as shocking a result for this season as last year's relegation of Nantes.

Early start

Looking out the window today it seemed too nice out to stay at work so I broke away a tad early and rode my bike. Appearances are deceiving. It WAS a nice day, but temperatures seemed to stall just below the average for the date. The still not quite warm temperature coupled with another strong north wind to produce another day when I stepped back into the house to don my jacket and later was glad that I had.

With the early start I had plenty of time to stop and look at things. This is a picture of the often mentioned but I don't believe ever previously photographed Lake Wabasso. It is across the street from Lake Owasso, smaller, connected by a creek.I started to climb the hill out of the Owasso valley and discovered that the street along the west side of the lake which had been under construction nearly all of last year has finally been opened. There is still another layer of asphalt to go but the base layer is down and it is smooth and rideable.

When the route up the hill next to the lake is taken the usual outlet brings me directly to Lake Emily. Lake Emily HAS been photographed before but today I caught the glistening waters visible through a gnarly oak.I stopped and watched a little junior varsity softball, Roseville against Stillwater. Stillwater has a bunch of hitters, they were pounding the ball, scoring several runs in the inning I watched. Then Roseville came up and went 1-2-3, leading to the line-up for hand shakes.

Today in France Lyon advanced to the final of la Coupe de France. They will meet Paris Saint Germain on May 24 at Stade de France for the Cup. Lyon also still leads Ligue 1 as they seek their 7th consecutive championship so they still have the possibility of playing for a double, two trophies in the same season, la Coupe and le Championnat. PSG also will be seeking a double, having earlier won la Coupe de la Ligue. As we all know by now, the last team to win the league championship other than Lyon was . . . anyone? Bueller? anyone? . . . Nantes.

Cold and windy

The sky was beautiful and if viewed from indoors today looked quite nice. But it was only about 49 when I headed out, on its way to 54. The wind was 18 from NNW with gusts in excess of 25. This qualifies as cold and windy. It was a beautiful day for early March, not quite as nice for early May.

But still, it was acceptable riding weather, a perfectly acceptable day. And it was gorgeous.

The Vadnais gate was standing wide open so I rode on down. At this point the wind was from behind me. Downhill and tailwind, I didn't have to pedal much as I made my way to the picnic area usual stopping spot. There were not any fisherpersons present today so I could ride out to the end of the point for a photo op.I was torn between tilting the camera up to photograph the beautiful blue sky or tilting it down to photograph the beautiful blue lake.

I have two pretty good cold and windy at Vadnais stories. In the first, as I was putting the camera away and reconfiguring my costume (zippers and gloves mostly) a large American car pulled into the parking lot with a grey haired couple of Americans on board. They chose kind of an odd place to park, directly in front of the Porta-potties, which led me to believe that they were not regulars. They had chosen to take advantage of the beautiful looking conditions to get in a walk at an undeniably scenic spot. They piled out of the car and turned towards the wind to start the walk. They didn't even make it out of the parking lot. The wife got about 3 car lengths away from the car but I don't believe the husband ever even cleared the rear fender. Boom, back in the car, fired it up and drove away. It was cold and windy.

The second story is that as I continued on my way I had to ride across the south end of the lake. The wind was howling down the length of the lake. The wind was blowing so hard that I had to lean into it to keep from being blown over. Let me repeat, I had to lean my bicycle over to 4 or 5 degrees off upright to keep from being blown over. It was windy.

20 degrees below normal

It was very unseasonably cold today but the sun is high in the sky when it does break through the clouds and it retains great potential, particularly around midday, to quickly raise the temperature. The sun came out late this morning and the temperature got all the way up into the 40s by shortly past noon. I checked the radar weather and the next snow storm was still far enough to the west that I reckoned on a couple of hour window of opportunity.

I haven't worn some of the stuff that I wore today for a couple of weeks but I didn't have any trouble finding any of it. It was a full winter gear ride with the exception of cotton socks and road shoes as I was still determined to ride the LOOK.

The weather did indeed hold off for a couple of hours and I got in the desired minimum mileage. I rode to the 6 mile turn around point, threw in a loop to Lake Como, the Lauderdale loop, and the Erik the Bikeman loop plus a couple of neighborhood loops and got home without having ever having been very far from the garage and without getting frozen.

Here's Lake Como, pictured here to prove that the ice is out of the lakes. With the weather as it is, proof seems as though it may be necessary.Very shortly after taking this photograph I came across TOPWLH as she hiked along the back side of the lake. Although she finds it too cold for bicycling I suspect that she will be reprising her role as Bianchi Babe starting soon. This spring cannot, just cannot, last forever.

On the Lauderdale loop I rode past a dad and a couple of kids on bikes with training wheels out in their driveway. One of the kids exclaimed to his dad, "Whoa, that's the fastest bike I have ever . . ." I was going so fast that I didn't hear the last word. My only thought was that he hasn't seen many bikes yet.

Ten percent - Amstel Gold

The spring classics continued today as Amstel Gold was raced in the Netherlands, sometimes also known as Holland. The winner was Damiano Cunego of Team Lampre. The 2004 Giro d'Italia winner was strongest of a nine man sprint towards the finish at the top of the Cauberg, the infamous hill which the Amstel Gold climbs three times. The climb is only about 1.5 kilometers long, but with a grade averaging 12 percent with a maximum of 16 percent.

I passed a key milestone in yearly mileage today. Every late fall when bicycling ceases the possibility always exists that it will never begin again. However, today I passed 10 percent of my annual mileage goal. Having ridden 400 miles it seems quite clear that the obsession has returned and that there will, in fact, be bicycling again this year.

At 400 miles I am pleased to report that a semblance of fitness is beginning to return. Today I felt strong, I felt fast, even on my low pressure and wide tire winter bike.

The day dawned with the remainder of yesterday's too cold weather still hanging on. It was 42 this morning and only 52 when I headed out at 12:30. But the change was clearly on and the weather website said 61 by 1pm. So I went in shorts, even at 52, although I did have arm warmers and a jacket to go with a short sleeved jersey. It was brisk at first but shorts ended up being the proper choice. By the end of the ride the temperature was nearly 70 and I was riding in short sleeves with the arm warmers pushed down. I felt strong, I felt fast.

The wind was mostly from the east with uncertainty about whether it would be NE or SE. There was divergence of opinion on the weather websites I use. I wanted it to be NE because I wanted to go north again. I was determined to check on this "ice out" thing at the most northern lakes. It was pretty much straight east at the start and stayed that way for most of the ride although it did end up coming around a bit to the SE towards the end making a slight head wind on the way home. But it was OK, I felt strong, I felt fast.

The ice was completely gone from Snail and substantially changed at Sucker. As you can see, Sucker Lake is not so much ice as it is slush.The ice sheet is coming apart.

I headed back up towards the Vadnais gate and discovered, as I expected, that the gate was still closed. But I noticed that a couple and 2 small children were walking down the road towards the lake. A closer examination revealed that the pedestrian gate was open. I had tried that once a couple of years ago and was rudely surprised to discover that it was only open at one end. But the worst that could happen to me was that I would have to ride down to the lake and then ride back out the same way. By now the temperature was surely above 60, the sun was out, in fact, it was such a nice day that young couples were taking their small children on long walks to Lake Vadnais. A ride down to the lake and back out didn't seem like a bad option at all.

It was a good choice. When I arrived at the lake the slightly freshening SE wind was breaking up the slush and piling it up on the NW shore. I could hear the tinkling of the ice chips as the wind pushed them into the shoreline. It was a wonderfully charming sound, well worth the ride.I continued on through and got this image which is the reverse of yesterday's photo.Clearly there is still some ice but the lake has large areas of open water and what ice there is is the consistency of slush. I am guessing that it will be all gone by sundown. The other bit of good news was that the pedestrian gate was also open at the bottom end of the lake.

I am officially declaring "ice out". I even noted it in my bike log.

I found this bit about "Holland" on Wikipedia:

Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. A maritime and economic power in the 17th century, Holland today consists of the Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland.

The name "Holland" first appeared in the sources in 866 for the region around Haarlem and was by 1064 being used for the name of the entire county. By this time the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as "Hollanders". "Holland" is derived from the Middle Dutch term holtland ("wooded land"). This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, at which time the name stabilized as "Holland" (alternative spellings at the time: "Hollant" or "Hollandt"). Popular, but incorrect, etymology holds that "Holland" is derived from "hol land" ("hollow land") and was inspired by the low-lying geography of Holland.

But I bet everyone already knew that.

Finally, a couple of brief football notes. Carquefou today scored a 2-0 home victory over bottom standing Saint Brieuc in Group G of CFA2. The points moved Carquefou out of the relegation zone. In Ligue 1 yesterday, Paris Saint Germain, the Coupe de France conqueror of Carquefou, lost 3-0 at Caen. PSG is 3 points from safety, very firmly in the relegation zone, with only 4 games remaining to play.

Earth fails to move

There were no earthquakes here today. This is, of course, good news. Earthquakes are possible here. We have the Mid-Continent Rift. The Rift has hosted a significant earthquake in the history of European settlement. In 1812 an 8.0 quake centered at New Madrid, Louisiana territory (now Missouri) changed the course of the Mississippi River and is said to have rung church bells as far away as New England. No earthquakes here today.

Also no sun. I ranted a few posts ago that having once ridden in 60 degree weather that I was through riding in marginal conditions. I lied.

Today I headed out the door with the temperature at 16 degrees below the normal high for the day. But it did warm up a little while I was out. When I got home it was only 9 degrees below the normal high for the day.

I missed a chance to ride on Thursday due to out of town business but on the way back I drove past the west half of Lake Vadnais and found it mostly ice clear. Based on this I expected to be able today to ride to Lake Vadnais and produce the first photographic evidence of the 8 lakes tour.

The lakes south of 694 (Josephine, Island, Mud) were all mostly ice clear. And the first lake north of the freeway, Snail, had ice only in a bay at the south end, mostly ice clear. Sucker was the first to disappoint with open areas near the creek where it flows into the lake and again near where it flows out. But the majority of the lake was still iced over.

Next up, Vadnais and I was quite disappointed to discover that the gates are still closed, no access to the lake. I am guessing that they don't want people on the ice (city water supply and all), so they don't open up until the ice is gone. And the ice isn't gone.

I had to circumnavigate the lake to get this shot from a seldom seen angle, from the southeast side.So I was thinking I would have good news (the earth failed to move) and more good news (ice out of the lakes). One out of two is going to have to be good enough for today.

A special shout out to the Big Apple.

Signs

The sun came out this afternoon and for a while there it looked like it was going to be a nice day. The temperature started to rise and one website that I use regularly changed its predicted high for the day from 45 to 51.

Well, sun shining and 50? I was going to be there. It seemed vaguely possible to me that the ice might be out on the lakes. It rained all day Sunday, that usually melts some ice. It has been above freezing, almost all of the snow piled next to my driveway has melted. Ice out on the lakes would be most promising.

So I hustled for home. There were troubling signs almost immediately that 51 wasn't going to happen. It was about 43 when I headed out the driveway and the sun was still shining.

Cue the haze.That's Lake Owasso. Fairly obviously the day is no longer sunny and fairly obviously the ice has not gone out.

But I rode for about 2 hours as temperatures stabilized in the low 40s. The forecast for tomorrow is 1-2 inches of snow, snow continuing possibly through Saturday, accumulation amounts not generally specified but at least one source suggests 8-12 inches. Well, that would be fun.

Signs of spring: My street has been swept. As has Hamline Avenue where I ride a lot, and as has a big part of the NW quadrant of Shoreview which includes a lot of my northern route. I spent a lot of time on swept streets.

Another sign: I saw outdoor baseball practice at Saint Odilia's school (in Shoreview).

Perhaps sometime soon it will be sunny and warm and I will be riding in shorts and jersey, no jacket, no pants, no wool socks, no gloves. Perhaps sometime soon.

Full ride

I couldn't ride yesterday because of the weather.

It was 60 by mid-afternoon and a ride loomed on the schedule. But in an outcome which would have seemed extremely unlikely as recently as Monday, I got rained out. A brief but intense cell passed through and the streets were deemed too wet for riding.

Today reached 61, I think. The winds were light enough that I declared them to be out of the north despite clear evidence to the contrary. I needed north because I wanted to ride up to the lakes. I had not seen even Owasso for at least a week and I was curious about the status of the ice.

I passed 2 riders on the way north. It wasn't a fair race in either case as they both had the look of less than 100 mile per year riders, one on a 1970s Schwinn (10 speed) and the other on a department store mountain bike (huge knobbies). On the big hill going down to Snail Lake I achieved a new high speed for the year. But before I could get the idea that I was fast I came upon a bike club ride waiting to start at Snail Lake. They had about 40 people milling about the parking lot. It occurred to me that probably about 2/3 of them were going to be faster than me and that if I didn't get out of there immediately the entire group would probably emerge from the parking lot and "on your left" me to despondent distraction. I hit the big ring and hammered.

I rode the full 8 lakes tour and discovered that all of the lakes still feature complete ice coverings. I also encountered a bit of other ice. I rode across a patch of ice probably 50 yards in length on the entrance road to Sucker Lake, an area where the road is in deep shade. I was then further surprised to find that Vadnais is not yet open for the year. The gate across the road is still locked.

With the Vadnais road not available, I ended up having to ride back down to Rice Street. I crossed to the west side of the double lake allowing this seldom seen view of the western lake to be photographed.This is the view from Rice Street. The grove of trees in the right center of the shot is where the parking lot where we usually stop is located.

I passed the time and temperature deal next to the A&W on Rice Street as the temperature changed from 61 to 60. The weather was changing, a cooler wind rising from the south. Still, 60 is pretty OK and I finished the ride without my jacket, a first for this year.TOPWLH was preparing to go for a walk when I got home so I pressed her into service as a photographer. I did the composition of this photo intending to show that there is snow and that there is flowing water in front of our house. I then turned the camera over to her and at the moment of the photo the front yard tableau also featured a satisfied bicyclist.

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.