A Day Off for Le Tour and The Open - What a Great Golf Tournament

We have a day off from Le Tour today, and then begin the final six days of the Race, culminating with the ride into Paris and the final sprinters' battle around the Champ Elysees. There's a lot of landscape and many kilometers of racing still to come before Sunday. After last week's brutal stages through the Alps, today's day of rest is definitely needed. Tomorrow we enter the Pyrenees for three days of intensive mountains and some great bike riding. 

The Open, held at Carnoustie in Scotland, was incredible golf. The
winner, Francesco Molinari from Italy, and in a four-way tie for
second place, Kevin Kisner (USA), Justin Rose, Xander
Schauffele (USA) and Rory McIlroy. The course was
wicked hard and Molinari won by playing some
incredibly consistent golf. 

DH and I started Sunday (yesterday) switching back and forth between Le Tour de France and The Open golf tournament. All too soon, though, we headed outside and started working on the backyard project. For me it was a day of pulling weeds. DH will be getting yet another load of dirt - black dirt this time - and spreading it various places, then we'll either spread grass seed or get sod and lay down the sod to help stabilize some areas where we're getting too much wash-out during rains. 

Congratulations to Magnus Cort Nielsen, winner of Stage 15.
Geraint Thomas retains the Yellow Jersey and goes into
the Pyrenees wearing it for another day. 

We finally quit working in the yard around 4:30 pm, fired up the grill, and treated ourselves to grilled corn on the cob and steaks. They were really good, and the best thing is we have plenty left over for a second meal tonight. The new Weber grill is working really well and it's so nice to have that old rusty grill out of our (in-process) nice patio area. I took a half-hour of time yesterday afternoon and gave the patio a good sweeping, so it's looking great (until the next batch of maple seeds and/or leaves cascade down upon it). 

One of the things that makes Le Tour de France so amazing are
the fans. They come out, they camp out, they party and
they cheer. They're the heartbeat of the race and without
their support and the problems that they create by
just being there - intrusive sometimes, but always vocal -
Le Tour would be boring. It's a race like no other. 

It's still a beautiful time of the year, though. Our day lilies are sending up orange or deep burgundy blooms every day and the annuals have done really well too, so the patio has spots of color and lots of greenery. The woodshed is still the bear in the room - DH just can't quite make up his mind how he wants to construct it. He'll have to decide soon - the summer is running down and Renaissance Festival will start in just a few weeks, occupying most of our Sundays for a eight-week stretch. 

Overnight, the Race officials have decided to disqualify Gianni
Moscon (Sky) from Le Tour for hitting another rider in
yesterday's stage. There's always some jostling, etc in the
ranks, but outright hitting isn't allowed. Losing anyone
from the team as they enter the final week leading
the Tour will be hard on Team Sky. 

I'm heading out to the pool. It's always nice to have one day away from the gym and my swimming, but it's always wonderful to get back to my daily exercise. I fully admit to being a very happy swimming guppy in the pool, it's a wonderful way to start my day. Have an excellent Monday, I'll be back and Le Tour will be entering the Pyrenees tomorrow. Whoot!!!