The sun returns, a good weather weekend

Ah, the sun returns. Although the weekend started with rain, the pavement was dry and my bikes were calling by mid-day Saturday. As planned, I watched the Tour de France live Saturday morning before striking out on a bicycle myself. It definitely wasn't a stellar day for Lance Armstrong and team, but Sunday's performance (from the part of an observer as opposed to a rider) seemed to be much improved. I'd really like to see him win number 7, although at this point anything can happen.

I set a target of 40-mile rides each day this weekend, and managed to ride 42 on Saturday and 41 on Sunday. I've discovered that I have some really nice 30-mile loops near home, so I rode those (actually I rode one of them in both directions) and then tacked on some smaller loops to get to my desired mileage. It's amazing how different a road can appear when it's ridden in the opposite direction.

Saturday after I got home I went to get my mail, still in my cycling clothes. I stopped to talk to a couple of neighbors, and one of them asked how far I had ridden. When I responded "42 miles", he said "no really, how far did you ride?". I finally convinced him that I wasn't kidding. It's funny, to me 42 miles is a normal riding distance, and I forget that to people who aren't serious cyclists that a distance like that seems like too far to ride on a bike. Definitely a different point of view...

Ah, purple flowers. It's been fun trying to catch shots of the beautiful summer flowers.

It's amazing the things that jump out at me as I ride or walk through neighborhoods. What a marvelous sculpture to be watching over someone's house!