This is how I feel when I get up at stupid-thirty on a Sunday morning: cloudy, out of focus, poorly composed.
This is why I rarely get up at stupid-thirty on a Sunday morning. Alas, this particular Sunday morning Herself needed a lift to the Greater Duke City Cosmological Airport; she and a sis are paying a call on Herself the Elder in Tennessee, which is a right smart drive for anyone who isn’t marginally employed, like her chauffeur.
My rule of thumb regarding travel beyond the city limits is simple: If the trip is under 2,000 miles and doesn’t cross any oceans, it’s Air Subaru for me. Oak Ridge is a piddling 1,400 miles from here, and damme if I’ll submit to the tender mercies of Benighted Airlines for a short hop like that.
Now I’m back at El Rancho Pendejo, and The Boo and I are both out of sorts, our routines having been upended. Not quite as badly as Alejandro Valverde’s, though. I guess he ate shit in yesterday’s Tour opener and needed a bit of time on the surgeon’s workbench afterward.
Mad Blog Media 
Once again, those of us without cycling injuries are paying for the treatment of those with. Bad! Freedom!!
Sad! Weak! Like to punch ’em in the bibs!
Valverde? First thing to pop in my head was, is he still racing? Then he suffers a broken knee cap; suffer being the right word, I think.
Man, that’s gotta sting. Now and then I spike one on a bar-con and I squeal like a little piggy. OK, so maybe a big piggy. But still.
there was a guy and gal that i met on our local trail a few years ago. they left from houston and came to pensacola for some family stuff and to make the trip a little more epic, the went mountain biking in every state along the way. the did a lap in houston at 2:00 am and finished on our trail here in florida by doing a night ride at 11:00 pm. i bet there is a lot of trail to be ridden between new mexico and tennessee. just sayin’.
That’s another good reason to drive. You don’t have to box a bike. And if it gets lost or destroyed, it’s probably your fault.
Managed to catch Le Bobke’s comment about how disgraceful and dangerous it is that The Tour can’t or won’t spend a few more francs on safe barriers. Possible market potential there!!
Bobke should know. He’s been there and done that. Did you know they charge journos for high-speed wifi? True fact.
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Geez, you get up early to take your better half to the airport and you can’t just go back to bed after? I do that quite often when the wife needs to leave the house at 4:30 AM to catch the first flight out of SUX. But we don’t have any pets do deal with, so there’s that…
Naw, Larry, once I’m awake, I’m awake. Always been a light sleeper, too. Plus I can’t leave the house without at least one cuppa joe under my belt. By the time I’ve navigated the I-40/I-25 speedway to the airport and back I need another cuppa to settle down.
Maybe that’s my trick – the wife gets a cappuccino once she gets to Chicago so I can wait until I wake up (again) to enjoy mine. “Light sleeper” is certainly NOT me!
Does not bode well for the main Columbian rider on Movistar (what’s his name?). Maybe Sky will let him latch onto their train – or not.
I haven’t even eyeballed this year’s course, but Nairo Quintana is tough to count out in a mountainous grand tour. He time trials for shit, though, and that’s always a problem.
He’s a lot better than he used to be and this year’s Beeg Shew’s light on chrono kilometers. Lost the Giro by only 31 seconds to noted chrono-man Dumoulin, so I wouldn’t call his efforts so crappy these days.
On the good news front, we got rain yesterday. Pretty much restricted to the SE corner of the state. Unfortunately, did not rain on any of the big fires going right now, but maybe today.
On the bad side, the gnat hatch is going great guns like it always does after the first rain. As we descended Ramsey Canyon today we ran into big swarms of them, and they stick to you everywhere including under your helmet. It’s a small price to pay for rain, as current and ex desert rats know.
Buggy here, too. But not that bad. Warmish, with the so-called “monsoons” yet to arrive. One fire down by Socorro, another in the Carson National Forest, and an itty-bitty one just around the corner at Tijeras.
Naturally, this doesn’t stop the feebleminded from playing with fireworks.
Mosquitos already in CO…….mind your environment and be cautious/preventive.
Few Miller Moths compared to several years ago; but given the past few months of warm and relatively dry, they may be pursuing life’s sustenance elsewhere. Not to mention the swallows that follow them!
Reminds me of the “SEA domino theory”; but in the eco sense.
Bobke looks like he still could kick some butt
Back in the day Bobke used to supplement his racing pay with construction work in Durango, if memory serves. If he can’t win the race he can probably still win the fight in the parking lot.
I’ve never been a particular fan of Valverde but what a suck ass way to go out of the tour, I wish him a speedy recovery. On a bright note happy for the Welshman, who seems a good bloke, and his stage and Yellow jersey win.
Your old buddy is in the news again: