Sick like dog, but TDF must go on!
No longer able to deny it, I is gots something. Started feeling poorly on Thursday, of course exerted myself too much on Friday what with the Fourth and all (which included a quick climb up to Copperas Pond and then, for reasons I’ll never be able to adequately explain, a competition to run up the bottom of the 120m ski jump slope. You have no idea how steep . . . ), collapsed on Saturday, remained collapsed yesterday, remain collapsed today. Probably bronchitis. Karmic payback for my complaints, even if they were primarily in my head, about being the only healthy one in the house (I have listened to coughing all my life, and sometimes it gets to me.) Another day of rest and a quick visit to the doctor and all should be well. I expect to achieve Sustained Vertical status by tomorrow.
Had a panic attack on Thursday, though not without reason — OLN suddenly disappeared from my cable lineup. One of the main reasons I picked up digital cable was to get OLN, which features such odd sports as skiing, snowboarding and bike racing (as well as way too much bull riding). My excitement built to a fevered pitch as they led up to their daily coverage of Le Tour de France . . . and then all of a sudden, the channel disappeared from my favorites list and couldn’t be found anywhere in the sports tier. Panic ensues. E-mails are hastily fired off in several directions. E-mails are hastily returned from all directions. They’ve just moved the channel. Calm down. It was so popular (go figure!) they put it in with the basic cable. (Just to note, all the OTHER channels that are in basic cable are ALSO listed in with their categories and are available in two places, so it’s not like I was insane thinking it had gone away.) But I’m resting easier. The prologue was great, although David Millar was robbed by a chain drop, which looked like a fluke until one later learned that FOUR bikes on his team lost their chains in the time trial, so no he may have been justified in throwing the bike when he got to the pit. That kind of thing cannot happen at this level of the game. Postal scored three of the top ten, did very well. Day 1 was an easy 168k, but there was a stunning smashup in the final kilometers. Still haven’t heard who got hurt and how badly. The peloton came to a stop, but through the arcane rules of cycle racing and TDF, everyone who was in the peloton in the final kilometer was granted the same time as the winner since they were unable to proceed. Since your overall time through the 21 days is what counts, that means no one was put at a disadvantage because of the crash, and the winning of the sprints along the way, which gives the rider bonus seconds off his time, becomes hugely important.
Just read an update from this morning — another, smaller crash with a motorcycle cameraman in today’s 204.5 km stage. One of the FDJeux riders is wearing a neck brace from yesterday’s crash. That’s gotta hurt.