Bicycling

Fresh

Farmer's MarketWe didn’t have any bills to pay today, so instead we went shopping by bike. You know we planned this because Donna put a backpack on instead just relying on stuffing things in my jersey pockets.

After a few miles of meandering around our first stop was the New Moon Cafe for a couple of bagels for Sunday’s breakfast. From there we headed over to the Aiken County Farmer’s Market. Corn, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and some local cheese went into the backpack with the bagels. Oh yeah, four homemade peanut butter cookies came home with us too.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 336

Town Hall

Municipal BuildingIn spite of my best efforts to do nothing at all today but lay about the house, my lovely wife coerced me into a 2-part, approximately 12 mile jaunt on the tandem this morning.

The first part consisted of some random travels around our side of town with the final destination being the city building to pay the water bill. While we were cutting through Citizen’s Park on a newly created roadway connecting the 2 existing ball field complexes to the newly opened 3rd, I started expounding on just how useless the several speed humps they placed on the road were. They are about 3 feet wide and maybe an inch and a half high. They would hardly register in our low slung, tightly sprung Miata, let alone the typical SUV or minivan that would be traveling this road. Of course they were marked with bright yellow signs proclaiming “Speed Hump” just in case someone did notice a slight tremor in their Starbucks coffee cup they would be assured it was an actual road hazard and not the offspring of someone they might see in the pick up line at the Montessori school. Donna asked where my camera was, so that a picture of this extra layer of asphalt could become this blog’s POTD. I said it was at home, so that is where we went next.

After slipping the camera into a jersey pocket it was back on the front of the bike for part two. It was getting late enough in the day that I thought it better just to head downtown to take care of our real business instead of going back to take pictures of a road. We more or less headed directly to City Hall. But a couple of early church services must have just let out because traffic was as bad as it gets in our little town. We did a couple of rights on red so as not to have to wait on lights surrounded by nicely dressed old folks in big cars. We finally ducked in through an alley and arrived at the Municipal Building and the front of the place was thankfully deserted. I propped the bike against the curb and took a few shots. Fortunately most of the church goers had cleared the roads, so we had a pleasant little trip home.

I didn’t avoid the bike ride, but the lawn remains unmowed and the car is still filthy inside and out.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 324

Not The Same Ol’ Sunday

The early morning, beat the heat, bike ride with a downtown breakfast stop was as usual today. The ride was different because we went for 16 miles instead of the usual 10 and rather than those fabulous New Moon Cafe muffins for breakfast, we went for the Veggie & Egg Quesadilla with the Breakfast Parfait. We did get a couple muffins to go for tomorrow’s breakfast though…

We ate out as usual with our usual friends today, but instead of our usual lunch it was for dinner. And in lieu of our usual Subway trip, we met at Moe’s, which may become our usual.

Tonight I’m watching the FRS get their butts whooped by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and although it seems to me to be something usual, the Sox have the second best record in Major League Baseball, so it really isn’t that usual.

And on a nice sunny day…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 295

Another Dusk Ride

Donna’s new seat came in the mail today, a Terry Liberator X Gel, so I mounted it up and off we went. I didn’t have time to adjust the beam down to compensate for the 1/2 taller saddle and Donna noticed it before we got to the end of the driveway. I figured we’d take a little ride and when we got back I’d adjust it.

We ended up doing 10 miles and arriving home just as darkness set in. I asked how the seat felt and she liked it. “Do I need to lower it?” I asked. To which she replied, “Nope.”

We’ll do another ride this weekend and see…

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 275

Bicyling, Bills and Bagels

Another little 10 mile tandem trip, we did the monthly pay some bills thing. Because the power company and the water works are downtown we decided to eat some breakfast there too. Lucky for us our favorite breakfast place is downtown too. Mmmmm, Raspberry Sour Cream Muffin. Donna snagged a bagel for today and we picked up an extra pair of Yankee Doughnuts for Sunday’s breakfast.

Thank Goodness For The Mountains

Ceremonial start.
Early attack by lower GC riders.
Breakaway gains huge time on peloton.
Non breakaway’s teams come to the front.
The breakaway is caught in the final kilometers.
Mass sprint finish.

Except for the two time trials, that is pretty much how the first half of this year’s Tour de France has gone, but tomorrow we separate the mere men from the supermen as the ride enters the Pyrenees. Who will emerge as the tour leader? Hard to say with all the big guns silenced,
Lance Armstrong – retired
Jan Ullrich – suspended for doping connections
Ivan Basso – suspended for doping connections
Alejandro Valverde- crashed, broken collar bone
Alexandre Vinokourov – team suspended for doping
Bobby Julich – crashed, broken wrist
Maybe it will one-hip Flyod Landis?

Donna and I went for a dusk ride on the tandem this evening. A little less than 10 miles, but we averaged 14-1/2 MPH, which is a few more MPH’s than we’ve been doing and coincidentally, about half the average speed of the peloton in today’s 105 mile stage from Bordeaux to Dax.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 260

Just Brian Being Brian

We went for another tandem ride this morning. We did the old Aiken Bicycle Club pre-meeting loop of out Rushton and back in Wright’s Mill, a nice 12 miler of smooth roads, little traffic and a nice variety of elevation changes.

The FRS were on TV last night on ESPN and this afternoon on FOX, so I’ve been glued to the TV so far this weekend. The announcers on ESPN are less annoying than the yutzes on FOX, but in both cases I would rather listen to the Red Sox radio guys call the game. The only problem is I can’t do it, the radio broadcast on MLB.com is about a pitch and a half behind the TV. I don’t know what the reason for the delay, it is not like it is the MTV Music Awards or the Super Bowl halftime show…

Part of today’s non play by play chat has concerned the fact that the American League’s top vote getter will not be appearing in the All Star game this coming Tuesday. Boston’s Manny Ramirez has begged off because of a right knee soreness. Tim McCarver felt that maybe even if he wasn’t going to play, he should at least make an appearance at the game. But Manny is going home to spend three days resting, this being attributed to “Many Being Manny.” This phrase is used quite often to explain his erratic or odd behavior both on and off the field. Because he is such a great hitter he gets cut a lot of slack. I thought, cool saying, it’d make a nice T-shirt, maybe I would add it to my CafePress shop, but somebody had beat me to it.

Well I paraphrased a Lance Armstrong T-shirt for myself by substituting Brian for Lance, why not do it for Manny? Look for a Brian Being Brian T-shirt on CafePress soon.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 254