Happy Independence Day....

Small town Iowa 4th of July....
The Queen of Cross....

Supper at Z's....

Test ride....

East Lake from the dike....

Hanging around....

I went to the Shop at lunch time on Thursday, just to say hi. The Thin Man was putting brake levers on his Transition so I asked if he was getting ready to put it on the road. "Nope, I sold it". Whoa! Along with his Zipp 404's and a new carbon Ruby for the guy's wife. Pretty good day! The guy who bought it said he was tired of getting beat by the girls in the triathlons and wanted a faster bike. Sounds like a motor issue to me.... Oh well. He got a very nice bike! Hope it works out for him.

While I was there Chris asked if I was going on the group ride Thursday night. I told him no, I was still hurting from Tuesday's solo effort after being away from the bike for 2 weeks. He seemed a bit disappointed. Hmmmm.....

We went back to work and after I'd left for home at the end of the day I decided to ride the C-50 for awhile, rather than the CX bike. I ended up at the shop at 6 and Chris talked me into the group ride. It was good. Very mellow. The entire group left together and kept the pace sane. I expected the first attacks to come after crossing 1st Street on Union Road, but it didn't happen. Double paceline at about 19 mph going north on Union. Wow! I took my pull with Craig and then dropped back. At that point Chris and I rolled at about 17-18 mph and continued north while the rest of the group headed west to Finchford. I must say that it was a great ride and that I'm glad I went. We rolled to Janesville then back south to Cedar Falls. I was still a little stiff from Tuesday and this ride was perfect to help straighten things out. I had ridden a bit before heading to the shop, so I ended the day with 35 miles in 2 hours. Perfect! Thanks, Chris!

Friday found Jackal and I heading south to Hudson at 8:30 in the morning. It was fairly cool and the winds were calm. When we got to Hudson we rode to the far end of town then back through on the main drag before heading back north on Ho Chi Minh. My legs were a bit stiff again when we left, but that passed quickly. We kept the speed at a pretty reasonable 17 mph or so. Once back on the bike path we headed to Cedar Falls and a trip through The Intersection of Death. We were crossing with the light when I heard Jackal say "red Trail Blazer right". I'd seen it and we continued through the intersection. Some young gal driving, talking to her friend in the passenger seat. She was going to do a "slow and go" right turn on red. She was almost on top of us when one of them noticed us and she stopped, wide eyed, with both hands covering her mouth and a look of terror on her face. We continued on across (very slowly, for effect...) while giving her the "look". I think she peed her pants, as she waited for the light to turn green before proceeding. Good stuff! Hopefully she'll pay attention the next time. All in all, a great ride. 25 miles.

Judy and I went out to breakfast this morning then just kinda piddled around for awhile before I went riding.

I went out around East Lake then up through the parks to Black Hawk and back. When I got back to Cedar Falls I decided to go back through the parks and around East Lake again on the way home. I met up with Steve Bullerman at the entrance to Wyth Park and we rode together to River View, where we said out good-byes and he went under the bridge while I went over and on toward home. The pace was a touch faster than I would have ridden if we hadn't met. It was really a nice ride. He was on his new Chili. Sweet bike!!!! Good seeing you, Steve!

Ended up with 30 miles this afternoon. Good stuff. It was raining this morning but pretty nice when I went out. Cloudy, but no rain. Jackal and Bottke did the Hudson route this morning between showers. There were quite a few families out riding today, as well as a few walkers.

If you haven't kept up with le Tour today, STOP HERE!!!!

After today's results in The Tour I would say that it will probably be an interesting race. 2 Liquigas riders in the top 10 and a 40 second gap between Cancellara and Lance. Yay! 18 seconds between Cancellara, who's leading, and Contador, who is in 2nd. We'll see how it plays out. FYI: I am not a Lance fan. He lost my respect long ago.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Good luck to those of you racing in the Firecracker 50 in Colorado and to those of you racing at the State Crit Championships tomorrow in Cedar Rapids. I'll be there watching and taking pictures.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!