No Mo' Free Laps

Got a quick call from GiVo the day after the final race of the Superweek Pro/1/2 Women's series. After surviving all eight of the prior Superweek races unscathed, which is no easy task, she gets taken down three laps from the finish of the last criterium. At that point in the race, there are no more free laps, so you can either chase or go home. She did indeed go ahead and finish, but as a consolation prize got her picture in Cyclingnews. She ended up 7th overall and 5th in the sprints competition. I'm impressed. I think she said she was off to do a trauma surgery rotation at Duke next week. Impressed again.

My legs seem to be recovering OK after Sunday's little dose of punishment, although I was holding back a little bit on this morning's long training ride. When I met the group at the pumping station it seemed pretty small, but by the time I finally dropped all the way back, somewhere around the Country Club I guess, I was shocked at how large it had grown. The pace, aided by a light tailwind, was typically fast but not ballistic. On the way back we were riding one of those moderate, smooth pacelines that are so predictable that you sometimes find your mind wandering as your legs switch over to auto-pilot. Just about that time, John's rear tire exploded. I was on Jeff's wheel at the time and it startled him so much I think his bike may have actually left the ground for a second. Most of the group stopped while we fixed it, which turned out to be a bit of a problem. The tire had split just above the bead. They were about to put a dollar bill in there as a boot, but instead I dug out the emergency race number that I keep in my bag for just such situations. Typical race numbers are made with Tyvek paper that works great as a temporary boot. Anyway, Todd put about 90 psi in there and he was good to go.

So I see that Pereiro won the TDF stage today. That's pretty gutsy after having been in that break two days ago and placing second. If Armstrong can avoid any big problems over the next few days and then turns in his usual time trial performance, he'll take the yellow jersey all the way to Paris this weekend. That would be pretty damned amazing. Even more amazing would be to have three US riders in the top ten.