Le Tour, my tour and a tour

Le Tour ended as expected, Contador well ahead. As expected at least by those not within the LA cult. I think he showed amazing strength and endurance in this tour, for any age. Chapeau, as they say. But I think the American reporters and American fans gave him a ridiculous amount of attention - every day, every performance, every comment. For this group, Lance could and should win any day, time trial or climb, and if Contador did not cooperate, either passively by losing, or actively by riding LA's race rather than his own, then blame and condemn Contador for a lack of team cooperation. Contador put time on LA in every stage that mattered, and put time on everyone else almost easily, whenever he wanted. He earned this win. Many very strong young riders showed their strength - Contador, Schleck, Nibali, Martin, Wiggins.

My tour - a nice bike ride this morning. Rode easily yesterday, planned a longish ride in the Cambridge hills today, multiple loops to get maximum amount of climbing - really the Cambridge hills need a gentler verb than 'climb' - per ride. But when I saw the low wind speeds early, unusual for East Anglia, I knew I had to try a fast loop. Glad I did.

A tour - here, I use the word in the sense of a trip, a visit. We would like to have our summer options settled, so that we could, perhaps, plan a trip (tour) to see the boys. But we need to resolve the Oregon option, one way or another, first. With that option, we would try to arrange a trip, quickly, for resettlement reasons and to see Gus and Sam. Without that option, we realized this week, we probably can't afford trips in either direction this summer; we might plan smaller tours locally. I thought, after all the fussing about video conferences and board meetings at the weekend, that we would know something by now. Soon, I hope. Soon.