A Long Haul Into the Alps, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead

After a spectacular stage win by Mark Cavendish yesterday, we dive into the longest stage of this year's Tour de France today. We need to be in the Alps tomorrow, and have a good amount of France still to cover to get there. Tour rules dictate no more than two 250K stages in any year's race, and this stage is one of them for the 2021 season. Cavendish is now only two wins below the record (34) set by the legendary Eddy Mercks. He's riding well, it's possible that he'll meet or even surpass that long-standing record. But whether he does or not, he's still won two stages of Le Tour de France, a dream some never achieve. Mathieu van der Poel retains his yellow jersey for another day

OK, so it's actually 249.1 km, but I think it's close enough 
to call it 250. The second half of the run brings us two 
Cat 4 peaks, two Cat 3, and our first Cat 2 peak of the 
season - the Signal d'Uchon just 18 km from the 
finish. The last peak for this stage is a Cat 4, but it 
peaks only 8 km from the finish which might be a 
real plus for a fast fun into Le Creusot. The climbers 
will be breathing a sigh of relief - finally they'll have 
their opportunity to use their skills. The sprinters, 
on the other hand, will be pushing to hang in. It's
not the Alps, it's the Morvan mountains, but it's 
a nice intro to the Big Mountains coming up tomorrow. 

At 249.1 km, this one will truly test the riders. But realistically? They have a whole lot of testing still ahead of them with two solid days in the Alps coming up on Saturday and Sunday. There will be a lot of riders just barely hanging on, and maybe a dropped rider or two by the time we come to our first Rest Day on Monday. 

(The file is in MOV format, and it's big. I'm not 100% sure it's going to be visible for all of you, but I'm going to try. This is how we left it before putting on the tape and keeping it covered until Monday. I'm also staying away from the treadmill for a week to give the ink time to settle in without massive amounts of sweat getting in the way. )

On the tattoo, Rodney sent me the video he took of the finished tattoo before he put on the burn tape and told me to baby it until Monday. I wanted to share with all of you, so we'll see if if comes through in my post. It's in MOV, which shouldn't be a problem, but I don't have any still photos of the ink. 

The Egyptian Book of the Dead is basically a set of prayers. I'm 
working with the E.A. Wallis Budge translation right now. 
Although there are problems with Budge, it is one of the more 
comprehensive translations. Still, it's slow going - certainly not 
grabbing my interest as well as a great novel. LOL

I've started the research for the hieroglyphics I want below the Kephri (that's what the scarab is), and am also contemplating what additional item(s) I may want below to accompany the hieroglyphics. I grabbed one of my several copies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and am busy reading through translations. It's slow going, but delightful to be immersed in Egyptology once again. 

So I'm out of here. I have raspberries and strawberries that I picked from my yard for breakfast, and I want to start munching their ruby goodness. Have a fantastic and fabulous Friday and I'll be back tomorrow for the first day in the Alps! Whoot!!! Please stay safe and be kind.