Saturday, July 18, 2015

Le Tour de France and Sasha Kitty

Today we continue following Le Tour crossing the bottom of France from the Pyrenees toward next week's battle in the big peaks of the Alps. Today's route is 175km from Rodez to Mende-Montee Laurent Jalabert, incorporating a hilly landscape and some peaks that will challenge the boys. We have two Cat 4 peaks and two Cat 2, one of which has the end of the stage at the top. In fact, there are three serious climbs in the last 40km. It should be an exciting day.


Once again we end at the top of a mountain, but just look at
the three peaks at the end. The riders will be stressed
by peaks after a long ride, and the temperatures have been hot
and brutal. This could be a breaking stage for some riders. 


Sunday's route is another medium mountain stage with a sprinter's end if the sprinters survive two Cat 4, one Cat 3 and a Cat 2 climb before the finish. It goes from Mende to Valence (182km). After Sunday, we'll have one more day (Monday) moving toward the Alps before a well-deserved and needed rest day on Tuesday.


Sunday's stage features a Cat 3 followed by two Cat 4 peaks, then
mellows out a bit with a single Cat 2 before a small sprinter's
finish in Valence. 


We've had a lot of withdrawals of riders since the race started on July 4th. Twenty-two teams started the race with nine riders for each team for a total of 198 riders. Twenty-three riders are now out of the race and only seven teams still have all nine riders. Le Tour is claiming its victims. Next week should be AMAZING, and Le Tour will end on Saturday on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.


Greg Van Avermaet riding for team BMC (USA) won the stage yesterday. 


Sunday also begins Chickie's vacation. This year she and her mother are driving out to Montana to visit her mother's mother and have a small family reunion with other aunts and uncles. She'll be gone from the shop all of next week and the first two days of the following week. I'm on cat care detail for most mornings and a few evenings while she's out of town. Sasha, her kitty, is old and not too healthy, so we're all hoping Sasha will still be up and about when she returns home. I'll do my best, at any rate.


This is Sasha Kitty. I'll be dropping by to feed and water her every
morning and clean her litter box. She hisses at me, I hiss back at her.
It's how we communicate - LOL. 


Have a wonderful weekend, all! I'll be back on Monday morning.


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