Hangover

The Tour is over. There were some outstanding individual performances, but the battle for GC was a yawn.
Say what you want about the Armstrong era, but when he won, he WON. The yellow jersey should take the race to people, not sit around and follow wheels.
And speaking of the maillot jaune, shut up about Froome getting yelled at, and spat on. Lance used to show up at the top of the Alpe covered in Dog knows what, and Merckx got punched in 1975, and it ultimately cost him the Tour win.
And Tejay...poor poor Tejay. Always something with that kid. He dropped out with a little chest cold and a headache...while in 3rd. Do we need to mention that Laurens Ten Dam crashed, dislocated his shoulder, popped it back in HIMSELF, then finished the Tour.
Some racers are hard. Some ain't....

Rumor has it that Richie Porte is going to BMC for next year. See ya Tejay. Only a matter of time until you're racing back here in the US.
Speaking of transfers, Alessandro Ballan will be racing for UHC in a matter of weeks, once his doping suspension is over. Will American racing turn into the MLS? A retiring ground for aged pros?

Enough of that....

You know that thing where you don't do any long road rides for a couple of months, then jump right back in the deep end of the pond? Yeah...welcome to my weekend.
Seriously, for whatever reason(s), I have done anything longer than a couple of hours since Mancation.
Saturday, we rolled out through The Swamp, and back in. Standard fare. 80km. Felt pretty good.

As you can see, it was fairly terrible out there. Almost cool in places, and never got what one would call "HOT".
Sunday met me with a tired body. What?
Going out into Lex/Cal felt pretty good. Everything got moving. NICE tailwind into Swansea. JMR led it to the town limit sign, and it was one of those rare occasions when I just needed more gear. Plenty of legs and lungs. It was the 52/12 that let me down. Trying to come around at 60kmh and 115rpm wasn't getting it done. Spin like Froome...I cannot...
We rolled back home, and I ended with 105km. Didn't quite feel as chipper as Saturday. The Boss left with Thing 1 and Thing 2. Thing 3 went down for a snooze, so I closed my eyes for a moment. Or 90 of them...whatever. Semantics. Tomato / Tomatoe.
As the title of this post states, I feel hungover. And the weekend has shown that I need to get back on the bike. My fitness is for shit.
Upside? We passed the spot of Mike's dog incident, and no dog.

Daniel Teklehaimanot laughs at your idea of vascularity.

The ladies raced on the Champs yesterday. It was pretty fun to watch.


And Griepel showed that he's the sprinter this year...


Watch Sagan banging to stay on Kristoff's wheel. Good stuff.

Evidently, Cav was crying after the finish. People were speculating why. He finished 7th, and really was never in the race. Only won a single stage this year.
I would hazard that he was sobbing b/c he knows that his contract is up in about 6 weeks, and a pay cut is on the horizon. It's okay. Save some money, start a Gran Fondo, or a cycling camp on the Isle of Man. Don't feel too bad for the boy. He wakes up next to THIS every morning...

Poor little fella....

Happy Monday. Time to go get some crap done that I've neglected for the last 3 weeks....