Tour Talk 1

 And so, the 2025 edition of le Tour is underway! As I type the Stage 5 ITT is happening (it's still pretty early in the day). The first week has been hard to watch all of each stage, as it's all been pretty much 'sprint' stages, mostly pretty boring until the last 15k or so.

 Obviously there have been crashes...most notably was when Alpecin lost their sprinter Jasper Philipsen (Stage 3 I think), who was taken out in the bunch sprint having done nothing wrong other than being next to guys that were doing the argy-bargy. Bobke said they were probably over 60kpm when it happened, all I know was that it was very sad, when he didn't get up and they finally took him on a stretcher you know it was bad...I think they said broken collarbone, the typical cycling damage other than road-rash (and he got a bunch of that too). He wasn't in Yellow that stage, his teammate Van der Poel (one of his primary leadout men) was, tho he had on Stage 2 having won the day on Stage 1.

 Today SHOULD be Remco's to lose... holding the current World AND Olympic ITT wins as well as the crushing he did on both Pogo and Vingo in the Dauphine a few weeks ago, and that it's nearly totally flat, means he SHOULD be on fire (and to gain back some of the 58 seconds he's down).

 As usual, the NBC/Peacock team is first rate...and exactly the same as last year from what I remember (it was a winning format, why change it?) Phil and Bobke in the trailer somewhere near the finish line doing the play by play, CVDV on the back of the Moto IN the race, Paul, TJ and Brent back in the Studio (in the US somewhere, NOT in France), and finally Steve Porino somewhere out on the days route giving us fun insights and info on people and places the race goes by. Bobke was at his usual hilarious this morning talking about how he was riding out on the TT route when Remco went by him (like he was standing still) and then Vingo...his sounds, antics and facial expressions is a huge part of what we love about him! 

 It's quite a race so far, with Van der Poel still in Yellow, but Pogo and Vingo are just seconds behind...I'd assume either Pogo or Vingo will be in Yellow tonight, tho if Remco has a beast of a ride today it's a real possibility HE could be in Yellow...wouldn't THAT be something! I will say that it's great to see Vingo uninjured and looking like he's at his best....hoping those 2 fight it out all the way to Paris nipping at each others heels!

Going to post this and go watch the ITT, the 'interesting guys are getting close to being out on the course. 

It's now Thursday morning as I type, coffee in hand, Stage 6 on the Telly, and I'm in my Happy Place! The ITT yesterday certainly didn't disappoint, holy moly! My takeaways: Remco didn't exactly torch the course like he did in the Dauphine (tho he was still FANTASTIC and rode a pretty flawless route!), Pogo rode a very inspired race, and Vingo just collapsed, you could see it mile after mile like his power was just weeping away (he lit out of the starting block like gangbusters, and it was just a slow motion train wreck from there). I actually felt terrible for him, he seemed so full of promise in the early stages, showing he was going to hang with Pogo and give him a race. In the GC he basically switched places with Remco who is now in 2nd. 

They are riding right thru Normandie this morning, and there are LOTS AND LOTS of graves in the memorial cemeteries for the WWII fallen soldiers...that brings lots of emotions to the surface, SO MANY guys didn't come home, and yet we live in the world they provided by their sacrifice (and the race literally rolling thru Normandie is a testament to that sacrifice). Nazi occupied France...it's still so hard to imagine that possible history had the allied forces not prevailed, Europe (and the world) would be a radically different place. 

OK, enough of that train of thought, it's depressing. Back to THE RACE! And WHAT A RACE!

So Ben Healy just finished the stage for the win (his FIRST Bob said? Is that possible?), and I think I was grinning like an idiot for the last 15 miles watching him continue to increase his gap against the entire breakaway all the way to the line, it was amazing! Quinn Simmons took 2nd on the day (USA, USA!) and hey, the newcomer American on Movistar Will Barta takes 6th in his FIRST Tour! Hole cats, what a great day! I loved this stage...6 categorized climbs (5 Cat 3's and a Cat 4 just before the line) really spread out the peleton leaving plenty of room for a breakaway to succeed, and it did! And can't take away anything from Vander Poel...he got in the break (which was NO EASY TASK today) and it seems he'd wiped himself out just doing that, but he wasn't in it for the stage win but to try to take back Yellow that he lost yesterday...and it seems like he did it! YES! They just posted the GC, he's in front of Pogo by ONE SECOND! OMG, what a race! I LOVE IT! Quite honestly, good for Pogo to let it slip away (he even mentioned it last night apparently in on of the interviews), very out of character for him in years past...he's maturing into the leader now, so tomorrow (another hard stage, but aren't they all?) he doesn't have to wipe out the team defending Yellow. There will be PLENTY of days ahead for that, as we all know he WILL take back the Jersey, maybe even tomorrow. Gosh what a day, loved watching it, and the commentary was fantastic (as usual!). Oh, and one final thought on that subject...have you noticed that somebody must have been working with TJ, because he hasn't been doing the "Uhm"s over and over again like every year back that I can recall (his post stage interviews when he was still racing just made me cringe!) Well done TJ!!! The fact that I JUST realized that I haven't been hearing the Uhms over and over hit me like a brick. Very well done TJ! That's not an easy thing to do (I went thru Instructor School OH SO LONG AGO in the Navy, and then taught a mainframe computer class for the next 4 years...and I know in that 1 month school they try to eliminate all the annoying things like that, but it's not easy). I'm so impressed, I know the banter between him, Brent and Paul is always interesting, and his new insight by being management for Team EF gives him serious insider knowledge that's up a step from the rest of the rider/commentators (he even picked Neilsson Powless as his winner today, right team, wrong guy...but oh so close!) OK, on to my non-Tour pile of stuff to do. Boy it's GREAT not HAVING to really do anything during le Tour...I get to just sit and drink coffee and eat snacks and watch the stages...ahhh, life is great! 

It's almost THAT time again!

 Yep....le Tour starts in just ELEVEN DAYS! Woo HOO!

And for the first time, I will get to ENJOY every single stage without needing to fast forward (unless I want to)! 

 So...it's been almost FIVE MONTHS since I retired...how is that possible? Rae, I totally understand your comment about finding a talent in wasting time...I have found that also! All of February I was on a real bike riding tear...4 to 5 rides a week. Jeanne was working from home in her little office, and I had absolutely guilt-free riding... she was home with the monsters, and with me gone she had absolute quiet for work...it was perfect! March rolled around and I caught some bug...seemed like a typical cold, the first week was the usual head-cold symptoms...and THEN, whatever that little alien monster bug was it dropped down into my chest. And for almost the rest of March I was in misery. I had aches and pains like I don't remember having, and I tried to ride once and realized that wasn't going to happen. Took a Covid test (as did Jeannie, we were both worried) but no. It finally released it's grip near the end of the month...that was really something. Jeannie had been forced to work back in the office (even tho her Union Contract says she can work from home) and her 4-10's schedule was also revoked (even tho that was also in her Union contract)...so at least she didn't see me suffering most of March. I don't recall ever being sick that long in my life. Good thing I was retired, I'd have hated to burn that much sick-time being SICK! (I sold back over a months worth of sick-time and several months of vacation I'd been hanging onto).

April arrived and I started riding again, boy how quickly I lost my hard-won fitness! But the weather was good, not hot, not cold, and the spring WINDS were moderate and ridable. May arrived, I'm still avoiding any big house-projects...tho my LIST is getting longer by the day. I still had my Peacock subscription (got it last year on a special offer, something like $25 for a year which was quite a deal). So I was able to watch most of the Spring Classics, that was fun. And sheesh, can ANYBODY beat Pogacar?? Man oh man, he is something! Classics, Grand Tours, he's a rare rider for sure! 

May came and it got HOT. Not here in my little town, but go inland just a few miles and BAM...90's +. I did a few long rides on days that were forecast to ONLY be in the 80's, but the winds and heat were relentless in the interior. Then June came and same thing...so I looked into my house list of projects, and the one I decided to tackle was replacing Fascia boards (the 'storm-side' of the house 2x10 boards, the roof  'trim' if you will) were needing replacement. Thankfully we have a 1 story house, but it does have a vaulted ceiling. That goes up PRETTY HIGH. But I came up with a plan and I'm about 3/4 of the way done. I got the entire side of the house fascia off, did a bunch of stucco patch where a creeping vine had worked it's way onto the stucco not long after we moved here (we liked the look so let it go for a few years, turns out it really digs into the stucco and is a royal beast to remove...it did damage!) I got new 2x10's, made the angled cuts to put them together (all on the ground on my saw horses), painted them (front is our house trim 'white' and the back is the color of the house...a very light brown 'mocha' type color). I bought an airless sprayer and painted the entire side of the house just 2 days ago (had to wait a few days for the winds to lighten up a bit...we've had a week or so of high winds which is pretty abnormal for this time of year). So now I'm waiting to hang and install the new fascia boards...Jeannie doesn't want me doing high ladder work or going up on the roof if she isn't home...which I understand. 

So it looks like I won't finish the fascia until after I get back from two short trips. On Thursday morning I'm meeting up with my brother Greg and we are road-touring down to Santa Monica (on Sunday afternoon we take the train from Santa Monica to Union Station/downtown LA) and from there we catch the Surfliner that takes us both north and home. Then Tuesday morning I fly to Las Vegas to meet my other brother Dave and we get our rental Jeep and get OUT of LV, headed to the Grand Canyon North Rim this trip. Yep, it's going to be warm, but if we stay up high it will be tolerable (down in the canyon it would be horrible hot). I fly home from LV next Friday afternoon. So maybe next weekend I can install the fascia boards, put in new strips of tar-paper to cover over the boards an inch or so, and the re-install the cement roof edge tiles (they hang over the edge a few inches). I originally wasn't going to tackle this project cuz it's kind of dangerous...but I figured out ways to do this by myself with only minimal danger...I think the hardest part will be putting the new boards in place...I've developed a way to hoist the boards into position, set them on brackets I made and shim them firmly to the roof and use special screws to install them to the rafter boards, then my air nailer using stainless steel finishing nails to nail the roofs outer 'ship lap' boards to the 2x10's. It's the getting the 2x10s perfectly positioned that will likely be the hardest part...once I do that the screws and nails are a piece of cake. 

So the completion of my fascia project is on hold, and anyway I need to get the rest of my road touring gear out of the attic, along with my hiking gear for the Grand Canyon trip...so I'll do that today. I've been working the 2x10s for almost 2 weeks now...(roofers would have done it all in a day, but they wouldn't have been painted, and also I did cut out and replace a few sections of damaged ship lap roof boards along the way). We had some estimates to have a crew do all this, and it was pretty pricey indeed (the house across the street is a 2 story and their fascia is REALLY bad, their quote to replace it all was 20 grand! We only need 1 side done, about 40' worth, and that was still several thousand...yikes). 

My excitement for the upcoming Tour has led me to watch the Dauphine this year (suddenly I have TIME!). My 1 year Peacock subscription ended a week or so ago, and I held out...HOPING they would make me an offer I can't refuse, and they DID! So I got another year for the same price (I was going to have to go monthly for like $17.99 because the normal annual is like $79.99 I think) and just get July, so this is a WAY better option!) I really don't ever remember watching the Dauphine before. I know it's THE SPRINGBOARD for Tour GC hopefuls...Vingegaard and Remco are both there, so along w/ Baby Face, that would be my top 3 choices for the Tour, assuming all are/stay healthy and unhurt. I just watched Stage 6 (in the background while I was typing here)...had to leave the computer when Baby Face just RODE AWAY from Vingo and Remco like he had an electric motor (ala Spartacus in his famed attack in the cobblestones...the attack where non-believers actually claimed he had a motor in his bike...remember that? It was when the electric bikes were not here yet, and conspiracy theories had a few select pro's having prototypes in their bikes, Cancellara was one of them). And wow, in Pogo's 7.2 kilometer solo ride today (I reference past races I'm just now watching like they JUST happened, cuz to me it did) he put a minute on Vingo and almost a minute and a half on Remco (who WAS wearing Yellow since his ITT win on Stage 4...he put over 40 seconds on Pogo). Vingo HAD 21 seconds on Pogo going into today...so now the GC status is Pogo all by his lonesome, Vingo back at 40 seconds or so, and Remco down by like 1:20. That's just nuts! And the next 2 stages are mountains! Baby Face is more like Baby KILLER! Man, he is something...they went thru the laundry list of BK's season so far and it was crazy with podiums and wins! Back in Stage 1 the Peacock crew of Bobke and CVV did the announcing, and then on the rest of stages it's been the other Euro guy (Todd?)...I'm getting use to him...but nobody replaces the Peacock Tour Crew! Anyway, Bobke and CVV were talking after Stage 1 that it's impossible to compare any athletes from different generations head to head, but they both agreed that IF it's possible to be as good or better than Eddy Meryx, Pogo is it. That's some pretty heady-stuff! 

Oh, and I failed to discuss MY new found talent for wasting time...well, to be honest, I've ALWAYS had it, but I kept it in check somewhat. Now that I don't have to go to work, I get up when I want and do what I want...yea, not really. Jeannie gets up before 4am most days, and me being a light sleeper, yep...I'm awake. Every now and then I can shake it off and go back to sleep, get up around 6. But not very often...most days I lie there till 4 to 4:30 and finally get up, get some coffee, and put on the news (we got rid of our satellite TV and got us a Tablo and 2 Firesticks...works well for us! The Tablo is wireless to both TV's, and the Firesticks have any streaming Apps we use). We have wall over 100 channels on the Tablo for FREE, including all the local channels and many movie channels. Jeannie wheels and deals and gets us constant streaming services for cheap, bouncing around to whoever has a deal...(those are usually for 30 to 90 days). We always have Amazon Prime, and now I have Peacock again for a year, and I think we have Netflix, HBO and Starz right now...so THERE is how I can waste WAY TOO MUCH time...all those channels! I sit down at 4:15 to 4:30 with the monsters Sophie and Abbey, and before I know it, it's 9am and I've done nothing but watch the TV! I haven't ridden a bike in over 2 weeks now...(the fascia project took over my life, that and the early morning TV). Oh, in my  defense of not riding for 2 weeks, my neck has REALLY been bothering me again...got hurt LONG LONG LONG ago (I was 19 I think?) and the last ride I did was just miserable. Usually this sort of thing will mostly go away as suddenly as it showed up...right now I'm taking a ton of ibuprofen every day...that's got to slow down/stop soon I hope. 

Oh, and one other fun item...I just applied for Medicare Part B... I turn 65 in September (how very fast THAT is coming up!) and that's going to hurt. I never took the rather pricey company insurance because I have Tricare (gov insurance) due to being retired military (Jeannie is on my plan too). When I turn 65 Tricare for me becomes free for the rest of my life, but becomes backup to Medicare which I have to pay for. And how much will that be? Don't know yet, but its going to hurt...because that price is based on OUR annual income...from LAST YEAR! Right now I'm not taking any of my 401k (now an IRA), or my other IRA's (a Roth and another one with our financial management company) and I won't take my SS until I hit 67. So MY income is down to just my Navy Retirement and my company pension...so lets say about half of what I WAS bringing in when I was working. Next year Jeannie can petition the Medicare cost based on our taxes for this year (which will be significantly lower due to my cut in gross income)...but for now it's gonna hurt I'm very afraid. But it is what it is, and WHEN I start taking my IRA's and SS I'll be in great shape! (for a while anyway...we'll see how inflation kills us once we are both fully retired). California isn't really a great place to live as they are KILLING us with taxes and fees, and just the cost of living...I heard recently that if you're making under 100k you are poor in most of CA...I get that. Single people are really living hard around here unless they have a fantastic salary.

OK..enough on that. Time for me to get up off my butt and do stuff. Attic, here I come!

Have a great week, talk more starting on the 5th for my annual "Tour Talk", it's gonna be a GREAT RACE!  

Later gators!