So, having covered myself in glory two weeks ago, I decided to ride the Cat 4 race tonight, a one-category upgrade from my previous work.
It was okay! Even on the fairly tough course we use, I was not adrift amongst the pack. Instead, I could keep up with it easily, and even made a pretty good job of staying close to the front. Though not ideal: I didn't over-work, but I didn't do a good job of going where I could move up when I had to (to wit, the last two laps).
This weekend was so hectic I don't even remember what I did on Saturday.
Today's stage was a mostly flat nothing, and a breakaway of GC no-hopers got away early. That's the kind of thing the GC leaders (Armstrong, Basso, Kloden, Ullrich) want to see, as it makes the stage safe for them (why? The short answer is that the escape can't do any harm because they can't gain enough time to affect the top riders, and additional escapes by anyone else are discouraged, because they would have to do the hard work of getting all the way to the lead group just to have a chance at anything useful like a stage win or a time gain).
Hey, did you notice that the Canadian downhill mountain bike championships just took place? The top ten men were separated by 13 seconds. The winner on the women's side, however, was Michelle Dumaresq. The gap between her and the next-best woman?
It's all over but the shouting. Lance managed to win yet another stage today (his third in a row, if you're counting), and has a four-minute lead over Ivan Basso.
One more thing: Cycling News has a pretty goodsummary of the Tour route, stage by stage.
Oh, me? Wedding on Saturday in Yarrow (in a turkey barn!), and this week I made sour plum preserves and syrup with my mother-in-law, and built up a wheel that needed building.
Oh, and Susan at work asked me a question today about how the teams decide who the leader is. I gave her a few answers: the rider has a history of big performances, the rider shows strength early in the tour, et cetera.
First of all, let me note something that I was surprised by: Lance went for it today!
Today featured a flat start to the stage, but at the end it it two Category 1 (very hard, but not quite the hardest class) climbs right at the end of the stage, ending atop the second mountain.
Most pundits expected that this would be a stage where the climbers would challenge each other but stay together. That didn't happen. On the first climb, the USPS team went out to the front of the pack to set a fast pace, and it was clear they were setting up a pack-breaking move.
This weekend, I rode a team-issue Cannondale Six13, duly provided to me by the factory, and wearing my team uniform proudly displaying my Cannondale sponsorship. It's about time my recent achievements were recognized.
Judging from the questions my friends and co-workers ask me about the Tour, there's a little confusion about how the Tour de France works as a sporting event, and how Lance is doing. Let me see if I can give you a quick guide to the Tour so far:
I heard Lance lost the yellow jersey today. Can he still win?
Yes. In fact, he probably didn't want to keep it all that much at this point!
