I’ve never raced the Tour. But, I’ve race a ton of long stage races. I’m not sure if the riders are cognoscente of the live media coverage or what. But, explain what was going on today? I mean between Schleck and Contador?

All these people are raving about these “psychological battles”, “mind games” and the mental pressure of the stage. Stupidity. That is the only thing I can come up with here. Obviously, Andy Schleck wanted to ride behind Contador on all the climbs. Especially the final climb. He was worried that if he got ahead of Contador, Contador would jump him and he wouldn’t be able to match the acceleration and loose more time. So when Contador decides to call him on it, they both coast off the back of the “field”. I understand it up to that point.

What I don’t understand is why they never finished it. They never jumped. If you take someone off the back in bike racing, or get taken off the back, and except that is what is happening, then you recognize that you’ve been challenged or are challenging the rider you are with. In that case, it is settled by one rider trying to bridge back up the the group without the other. One of them needed to jump. But, no. We don’t get to see what should of happened. By should, I mean, that both riders knew what was up here.

I guess Andy Schleck blinked and told Alberto that he would pull back up. What was that? They just gave 3rd and 4th on CG time and didn’t do anything but ride stupidly. The time was kind of meaningless. Some call it a truce. If it is a truce, then they should of called the truce before they were 20 seconds behind and just ridden to the finish with Menchov and Sanchez. I don’t get it. It must be something for TV. Schleck needs time. If he wasn’t planning on getting any today then he should of stayed with the lead group and kept his guard up for an attack by Contador. Their posturing didn’t do anything for me. To me it was like watching a okay movie that had an abrupt finish that pronounces a sequel. Maybe I missed something.

Here it is a few hours after I posted this and saw this quote from Bjarne Riis (Team director Saxo Bank) – “I think it was stupid for both (to stop attacking). I don’t support those actions. When they are in the middle of it, I don’t interfere (with tactics),” Riis said. I was surprised to see he used the same adjective (stupid) as me. (And, when they are in the middle of it, I don’t interfere with tactics either.)

Andy Schleck pulling Alberto Contador back to the lead group after they played their reverse tactic card.

So the trip to Brazil never materialized. At least plane tickets didn’t. That was okay with me because my broken ribs have been reverse healing. They are worse now than they were 3 weeks ago. Every little crack in the road sends a shock wave through my chest. And it has been hotter than hot here. Like really hot. And humid. The heat index is over 110 everyday. Makes for some pretty crummy bike riding. I was hoping to do the last week of Superweek, but that isn’t going to happen.

So, I guess I’m going to get on a plane and fly over to Europe for a week. At least that is the tentative plan right now. It’s kind of an in and out trip. Getting to Paris on Sunday morning and just spending a couple days in France. Then to Belgium for a few more days. I’m not too big on watching bike races live during the season, but I’m not really doing that anyway.

I think I’m going to take Bromont up to Wisconsin to let him run free in the woods while I’m gone. Highs are in the upper 70’s there and the lows are in the 50’s. I told him I would, so that is a deal. It should be nice.

I spent the majority of the time the last couple weeks redoing Mike and Judy Hudson’s bathroom. I met them when I first started racing, back in high school, so we’ve been friends for quite awhile. It isn’t completely done, but pretty done. I put electric radiate floor coils under the tile so the floor should be nice and toasty all winter. If you’re putting tile in, I would highly suggest this.

Nothing much else is going on. Here’s some photos from the past week.

There have been some crazy thunderstorms the past week driving up the humidity.

Made a wish. Maybe not as good as a four-leaf clover.

Laying tile and heating coils around the tub, steam, jacuzzi contraption.

Floor done.

Post tiling shot. A bit beat.

Went to the Mexican Feista here in town. Good people watching and food.

Saw this perfect mushroom at Mike and Judy's. Had to take a photo of it.

We went swimming yesterday afternoon and Vincent's dad (Vincent in the photo with Pascal) rode this over so we all tried it out for awhile. Pretty fun. It goes off-road well.