Friday PM

Just a few lines today.

Hot. Hot. Hot. And its supposed to get hotter this weekend.

4 did the filming of Lance at the IMU this AM. She said it was a well-attended event, but that she was not moved to seek an autograph. LA was a huge hit on RAGBRAI and in the IC nite scene last night. In some respects, you would like the masses to give the guy some space so that he could enjoy the experience without having a camera in his face all the time. On the other hand, he came to get publicity for the cause, so using his position to do that comes with a cost.

Several articles noted that his pace when riding was in the low 20's. When I'm riding on the flat roads, my comfortable pace is 16-17 mph. The Monday night riders here in Bettendorf have some folks that like the 20+ pace, but like I always say, I'm not getting paid to do this. Ramping it up to 22 would be no small amount of work.

The Landis saga is in full bloom. Some national sports columnists are chiming in with pieces that pretty well lambast the sport of cycling, even though they really don't follow it. It is an easy target. And most of those guys lump LA in the same pile of scrap. I don't know. So many things in cycling are fickle, and the various testing authorities can't agree on common grounds. The columnists look down the end of their noses at the boys in the tight shorts. As though if you can't take a blind side pick from Karl Malone, or a clothes-line tackle from Jack Tatum, you aren't really an athlete.

LA gave the critics some fodder with some border-line jokes in his monologue at the ESPY awards program a couple of weeks ago. I didn't watch that made for TV event, but there were lots of stories after the fact.

In other news, I was down having a beer at the Stockade in the village of East Davenport last night. Across the way, the brothers were playing bball on the court where I tore my ACL. A full court game going and then a bunch of guys shooting at the 3rd basket waiting for a game. And 5 year olds scurrying around underfoot. There was at least one white guy. The whole scenario rang true to my time there 17 years ago. Some things never change.

1 completed her summer school teaching stint today. You go girl! Good luck on your long run this weekend.

By the by 4, Coach K says you should run the Bix course twice tomorrow for the marathon training.

Good luck to 2 an4 in the Bix run tomorrow.

We love ya 3, but we never get to see ya!

Be careful out there.