Independence Day fireworks aside, today is going to be quiet for a lot of people. It’s a Monday that acts like a Sunday: a day without work for most of us, a day without mail and banking and stock markets. Today also will be hot by Wisconsin standards: 80-something degrees. That’s enough to make a lot of cheeseheads languid. But before they feel too sorry for themselves I hope they will take some comfort in knowing that West Bend hasn’t seen a 100° day since July 4, 2012.
If you’re a cycling fan, then today also is a day without the Tour de France. This year’s edition began in Denmark last Friday and today is an early transfer/rest day as the riders prepare for the first stage on French soil tomorrow.
I’m already irritated with the cycling press, whose predictions proved incorrect when Yves Lampaert won the Stage 1 individual time trial. Lampaert’s victory was universally regarded as a “surprise” by the journalists who had overlooked him in favor of world champion Filippo Ganna, the versatile Wout van Aert, and other contenders. But if you were surprised, then you weren’t paying attention. Lampaert was the Belgian national TT champion in 2017 and 2021. With his Etixx-QuickStep teammates, Lampaert won the 2016 UCI World Championships men’s elite team time trial. This is a guy who performs well against the clock, and to dismiss his Stage 1 victory as a fluke is misinformed and disrespectful.
The journalists are probably going to fare better with their pick for the general classification when the race concludes in Paris on July 24. Two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar will be hard to beat.
I don’t expect to watch much live coverage of the Tour. I’m getting my fix with extended highlights and interviews. And I didn’t watch much of this year’s Tour of America’s Dairyland, which concluded on June 26. I went to Shorewood on June 24, but I was in a sour mood and left before the end of the men’s pro race. I think ToAD suffered from a lack of star power this year. There was no “must-see” rider, and crits are simply not that interesting. As a fan, I’m far more interested in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, and I’m looking forward to three events this month: Lenzerheide, Switzerland (July 8 & 10), Vallnord, Andorra (July 15 & 17), and Snowshoe, West Virginia (July 29 & 31).
My own mountain biking ambitions are pretty humble. For now, I just want to enjoy the trails again, and only more practice is going to fix me. Last Friday I rode at New Fane for the first time since September 2015 and I was absolutely awful. Trails that once were so familiar now seem filled with hazards at every turn. I managed not to crash, but I very nearly went over the handlebar on a section of trail that never used to challenge me.
On the evening of Sunday, June 5, we had a fatal bike accident in Washington County. A 62-year-old man hit a pothole in Germantown on Lovers Lane between Pleasant View Drive and Mary Buth Lane, causing him to lose control and crash. News of the accident reminded me of my own crash last October. Everything was fine, then in an instant I was on the ground, and I never saw the bump in the road that got me. Several years earlier I had a similar crash on the Wild Goose State Trail, losing my front wheel in a big erosion rut hidden by the shade of an overhanging tree. It’s scary how quickly things can go wrong. And they can go wrong inside or outside of the presence of motor vehicles. They can go wrong anywhere. I’ve ridden Lovers Lane in Germantown many times and can assure you it’s not an inherently unsafe road.
So, now you know what’s going on. And there’s always something, even on a holiday.
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