The Tour Winds Down

Tomorrow the time trial.

It's a long one.  So long, in fact, that they've set a feeding station up in the middle, just so you can have a snack en route.  Hilly too.

All of which favors a strong showing by my boy Tejay van Garderen.  Currently sitting in sixth, there's a real chance that he can take several minutes away from most of the guys above him.  The bad news is that he lost about four minutes in the first day in the Pyrenees, and no matter how fast he pedals he's going to have a tough time grabbing that third spot on the final podium.  I'm feeling my oats, so I'm going to predict that he finishes fourth.

This, one of my Chuck Close fromage paintings, is titled Close, But No Cigar...

I always liked this painting.  Particularly the little red dots (presaging my Maps of Troy dots perhaps) that defined the intersections of the grid lines.

Back to the Tour, more specifically Vinnie Nibs:  Did you see him pull away from the field yesterday?  Dude, it was like he had a motor on his bicycle.  The last time we saw a rider destroy the field like that was Floyd Landis' famous break-away.  The one that won him the Tour that year.  The one that seemed almost superhuman.

And we all know how that turned out.

We do?
You don't?
No.
Drugs, baby.
Oh.