Thursday

1 reports that her betrothed had a successful evening behind the dish last night. And that more appearances in Big 10 games may be in his future. Kudos to him. I'll have to think about it for a while before elevating him to numbered status in the blog. It's a big step.

The Discovery boys are back at it in Georgia. In one of the weirder stages of this or any recent year, the peloton let a break of 13 riders get away yesterday on a relatively benign route for a 30 minute gap. This essentially gave the win in the week long race to whomever in that 13-rider group does the best in the remaining stages. Pardon me while I explain.

Since Discovery had two strong, but second-line riders in the break, the remaining Discovery riders in the peloton had no incentive to chase the break. The team of the then over-all race leader simply didn't have the horses to drive the peloton, and the two teams who were not represented in the break, tried to make the catch, but wore themselves out before a connection was made. Interestingly, Discovery's two primary leaders, Leipheimer (who won California earlier this Spring) and Danielson (who won Georgia two years ago), both had designs on the over-all win here, but the peloton would never have let either of them go with a break, so they remained tucked in the peloton and followed racing protocol which is not to lead the chase for a break that includes capable teammates. Odd circumstances that might have been a little tough for the two Americans to swallow as they allowed their much less-heralded Slovenian teammate to take the headlines.

Leipheimer did win the individual time trial earlier today, but his teammate Brajkovic who was in yesterday's break has the yellow jersey. And Leipheimer is more than 26 minutes back. So the Discovery team will be charged with escorting Brajkovic up the big, beyond-category hill tomorrow to assure a team victory for the week.

In other drama, Junior created a stir at the end of last Sunday's race in Texas. After his car was wrecked beyond repair, he agreed to drive the last few laps for the 5 team because their driver, the volatile Kyle Busch, had left the track after his own wreck (which was the same one as Junior's), but the crew was able to repair the car, and they had no driver. So Junior jumped in and earned an additional 3 championship points for the 5 team. Lots of media-types out there want to criticize Junior for being reckless with himself, his own team, his company, sponsors, and lots of other current-day proprieties. I say, "Go for it, Junior." That's certainly how NASCAR was before Hollywood, TV contracts, and microscopic sports analysis.

I registered for TOMRV today (Tour of the Mississippi River Valley). That's the bike ride June 9-10 from Bettendorf to Dubuque on Saturday and back on Sunday. My TOMRV is Bettendorf to a bar in Galena on Saturday. Have a couple of adult beverages. And get a ride home, sleep in my own bed and have a full Sunday to do whatever. I mean, it's 85 miles to Galena. I'm not getting paid to ride. And my butt just doesn't do 200 miles in less than 48 hours any more.

My training for TOMRV starts Saturday. I'm taking a couple of more days of "nothing" to recover my sanity.

Have a great evening.

Be careful out there.