Monday, July 10, 2017

Monday is a Rest Day for Le Tour

What a wonderful weekend of bike racing. Waking up early on Sunday morning and joining DH to watch Le Tour de France as we're both waking up is a lovely way to start the day. After the thrilling finish we loaded my car with a full load of branches and wood and took a final trip to the compost. We might be finished hauling wood for a while, at least until after the grading, etc, gets completed.


The man in green, Uran, won by a tire's width against the rider on
the left, Barguil. Chris Froome, in the center with the Yellow Jersey,
retains it for another day. 


We returned home and settled down to watch the baseball game. Since it was a boring game and we were tired from having awakened so early, we had a nap. It just seemed like the right thing to do - we don't get to indulge often. In the late afternoon, I headed off to buy Chinese food for dinner. Their portions are huge, so I'll have Chinese to eat for several more days. Yummy!

No Tour de France today - it's a rest day and it's very needed after yesterday's ride. The climb of Mont du Chat was amazing and dramatic and we lost some very good riders to accidents as they ascended and descended the various steep climbs of the day's route on mixed dry and moist roads. The narrow streets of Chambery funneled the riders in towards the finish line and it was a photo finish between Rigoberto Uran and Warren Barguil. The Cannondale Drapac rider (Uran) won the stage by less than the width of a tire. So close!


Richie Porte had a bad crash at high speed, tumbling completely across the road
impacting with another rider. He's out of the race, but fortunately it looked worse
than it actually ended up. 



The mountains took their toll. Twelve riders either withdrew or missed the time limit on this stage, including three big names - Richie Porte, Robert Gesink, and Mark Renshaw. Renshaw was dropped because he didn't make it over the mountains within the time limit, but Porte and Gesink both fell and were pulled because of injuries.

Tomorrow we pick it all up again after the riders and their handlers and equipment have moved across France to the southwestern part. Tuesday's ride begins in Perigueux, almost a straight line west from their end point on Sunday. Enjoy your Monday, I'll be doing my normal - swimming, breakfast, working, home. Le boring! LOL.


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