Mennonite Blues

Damn but it seemed dark this morning when I rode out to the levee to meet the group. I guess the days are already getting shorter now, which makes you think about buying school supplies or something. I guess I wasn't the only one feeling the effects of the slightly later sunrise, since there were only a couple of guys up on the levee when I arrived, and it was quite a while before the full contingent was assembled. Today's ride started out smoothly enough, but the barely perceptible yet unrelenting acceleration drove the pace up into the upper 20s well before we reached St. John parish. There must have been a lot of people who turned around at the "dip" today, although I didn't realize it until the turnaround. That was because I was sitting on big VJ's wheel for the last five miles wondering how he could just cruise like that at 27 mph all day. Of course, he was on his TT bike, so I felt no inclination to try and pull - not that he ever eased up so I could. Pulling out of his slipstream probably would have been like sticking my head out the window of the City of New Orleans SuperLiner somewhere around southern Illinois anyway. It was like sitting on the wheel of a motorcycle. After the turnaround I was surprised how few were left and how scattered they were. We all finally got reassembled, though, and rode the return trip at a somewhat slower pace.

So on the home front, the insurance company is sending the last check for the roof and the roofer has ordered the shingles, which means that in a couple of weeks I might be on the schedule. Right now I'm the only one in the office, and its been this way all day. I know one of them is out dealing with repairs and contractors for her flooded house. The rest?? I'll assume they're working hard somewhere on weighty matters that demand personal meetings. I'm about to dive back into this contract issue so I can get everything worked out and ready for signatures some time on Friday so they might actually get signed on Monday when the president gets back in town.

So after reading about Landis' failed drug test, now I've got the Mennonite Blues, and I'll bet his momma does too! I'll refrain from making any assumptions about guilt or innocence, though, because I trust WADA about as far as I can throw the aptly named Dick Pound, and I especially distrust indirect methods like the epitestosterone/ testosterone ratio test they apparently used in this case. Could the off-the-charts efforts of Landis' 16th and 17th TDF stages have skewed his ratio a bit? Probably. Given all the water he was drinking during the stage would the lab have had to artificially adjust the specific gravity of his urine before testing? Probably. Would Prednisone given to help a painful hip affect the testosterone test? Possibly. Would Dick Pound squeal with glee if he could nail a U.S. rider after winning the TDF? Definitely. OTOH, after the disasterous 16th stage, if you were to resort to an illegal drug to help recovery, what would it be? Probably HGH and testosterone. For me, though, the recovery regimen is usually more like a hamburger, 20 minutes of rubbing my sore legs, and a beer. Probably explains why I never got the call from Phonak... That reminds me. Thanks for the beer after the race Saturday, Kenny!