I am pretty surprised how beat I am, a week after doing a 100 mile MTB race.  I was starting to feel rundown before the race, so maybe I was already going to be feeling mediocre even if I didn’t do a 5+ hour MTB race.  I do have all the symptoms of allergies and everything is covered with a layer of green pine pollen up here in the Northwoods.

Anyway, I’m still plodding away, trying to ride easy for as long as I can physically stand it.  I rode 70 miles a couple days ago and 50 yesterday.  I’ve been cramping some at night, in my sleep, but I’m sort of in denial, so I dismiss this as a issue.

The 4th yesterday was great here in Cable.  Like I wrote yesterday, lots of holiday festivities.  I participated, mainly by watching, a ton of them.  I watched the run early, then the parade, ate the picnic lunch, then rode, and finally the fireworks at 10 pm.

Cable has a pretty unbelievable fireworks display for a town of 800.  It was pretty constant for 20 minutes, with a great finale.  There were a lot of mosquitos trying to suck our blood, but we had some Avon Skin-So-Soft with us, so we didn’t get too destroyed.

I’m watching the Tour now.  Seems like a pretty hard day for the first road stage of the Tour. Side winds and rain in Holland isn’t a real surprise.  Seems like some GC guys are going to lose time today, but there is still an hour left.  Not sure about BMC leaving the yellow jersey to fend for himself.

I’m going to go for a ride this afternoon, the to an outside concert of Molly and the Danger Band.  I’ve seen Molly play quite a few times now and it is always super.

Okay, the Tour is getting interesting, so I’m going to watch now.  Enjoy.

This little girl was great. This is during the Star Spangle Banner before the parade.

Rivers Eatery entry into the parade.

Nice firework display.

My calf has become a little infected after a crash before the Lutsen race last weekend. Maybe this is why I’m feeling under the weather.