I really don’t know what to think about Peter Sagan as a cyclist. He sure is a different kind of bike rider than usual. A classics type rider who can sprint crazy good and sometimes climb with the best. But, this isn’t about his physical abilities, this is about how the guy can handle his bike. And he does that unbelievably well.

He can turn as well as anyone I’ve ever seen, at least on TV. I would like to ride a race with him to really see if he is as good in person as it looks through the media. I’d probably have to ride a bunch of races to actually make that call, but you know what I mean. He descends crazy good when he has to and obviously can corner at the end of a race much better than nearly everyone else. Below are some photos of the last stage in Alberta on Sunday. He comes from so far back, turns the corner much, much sharper than everyone else in the field and comes out of the corner with a winning margin. It is pretty amazing.

I remember him winning a stage a couple years ago, maybe last year, in the Tour of Switzerland or Romandie. It was a long descent and he railed the thing, caught the leader right before the finish and then easily won the sprint. It was beautiful.

Anyway, he is a pleasure to watch. I think he scared the shit out of Robert Förster, UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team, turning so late. I bet Robert thought Sagan was going to t-bone him. Anyway, good stuff.

Check the angle at that Peter Sagan’s bike is at compared to the other riders.

And this is the top photo a couple seconds later. It is amazing how far ahead he already is. He comes out of the corner bike lengths ahead of the other riders. Click to enlarge.

After race show off, which is fine.

Here is the sprint above in real time.

Yesterday was a long day. I spent most of the morning getting a MRI done on my hand and then trying to get a disc of it to send off. I quickly packed, picked up Bill and started driving. For some reason the drive seemed to take way too long. We stopped in Minneapolis for some burritos, got some latex, coffee, muffins, and other than that didn’t wast much time.

We didn’t get up here until 11:30. Dennis’ dog Hawkeye wouldn’t let Dennis sleep through the arrival. Bromont and Meena, Bill’s dog love it up here. So there romped around until well after midnight.

Dennis gave me a little tour of the projects he’s done the last month. He’s been a busy beaver. A new roof over the entrance to his house, replaced the beams to a deck on the primitive living lodge, plus re-roofed the building. I’m usually the instigator of these type of things so I feel a little left out.

And he has been ordained as minister. Go figure that one out. The one requirement is that your age has to be over 13. He qualifies. He’s actually going to be doing the marriage of Jeff Bradley/Deb Wood in a month or so. I didn’t know you could just become clergy by mail. He’s thinking about the ways to take his property off the tax rolls. It is a little piece of heaven, so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

Bill won’t roll out of bed for another hour. He’s a sleeper. Katie Eriksen is coming here at noon. We’re going to ride the whole course today. Catherine is driving up tonight. She never gets here very early before the race anymore. She has been slammed at work, very stressed, so this should be a good release for her. I’m totally up in the air about my hand situation. I’ve been sticking my thumb into an ice bath. I might try to tape it some today. Maybe I just won’t shift much, if any, today. Then I have two more days for it to feel better.

Okay, Bromont is trying to get me to go walk in the woods with him some.

This is pretty much everywhere in a hospital before 6 am.

I ripped my arm up mowing on a thorn bush before we left.

Finally got the physical MRI disc.

We saw this fish truck in Iowa on the way up.

Dennis’ new roof addition. Finally, no ice on the porch in the winter.

He replaced these beams too to match the porch on his house.

New shingles on the primitive living lodge. I like the red accent.

Wood pile for after the race. 10 loggers cords. It is really nice oak. We’ll see how my shoulder and hand like this.

Father Kruse’s official swag.

Stacie suggested I do this, so I am. We’ll see if it helps. It’s really cold.