Stage 20 - Kirchhayn

Today's ride was the shortest since the opening prologue. Only 17 miles.

In the Tour they rode an individual time trial were the riders start 3 minutes apart so that each rides and works alone. They go hell bent for leather from start to finish.

I used the opportunity to do a 3 mile all out ride to guage my fitness. There is a 3 mile stretch of road near my house that is fairly flat and when a rare windless day happens I'll ride it all out for comparison purposes.

The first time I rode it in May of 2004 my time was 7:40. This May my time was 7:11. Today my time was 6:57. My legs felt thick and I could only get my heart rate up to 163 so the heavy miles certainly were a factor. Still, the average speed was 25.9 mph.

Physically and mentally I'm feeling great. The long rides have just become a part of my life now. My weight has dropped from 164 to 161 and I think that's OK since I expected it to drop considerably more. My clothes fit loosely but I won't invest in a new wardrobe as I fully expect to gain the weight back as soon as the mileage goes down to reasonable levels.

Lance won today's stage and avoided becoming the first rider in 15 years to have won the Tour without winning a Stage. The worst part of watching today's Tour coverage was the interview with John Kerry.

John Kerry! What the heck was he doing in France? Not only was he at the Tour, he had full press credentials and even rode in the car that followed Lance during his ride.

Kerry lost so there's no real purpose in bashing him now. But what the heck!

Kerry was born into wealth and priviledge. His family's net worth was in the millions. Not enough for Johnny boy so he twice married into families with net worth's in the billions

The press got him mostly for his famous flip-flopping, but what I disliked about the guy was his insincerity.

Here's a guy who flys around in the family Gulfstream II jet, guzzling fuel at the rate of 600-700 gallons per hour all while claiming to be a conservationist. Think for a moment about this. His jet will use the equivalent of 758 full car tanks of fuel flying from Boston-Paris-Boston. That's more gas than most of us will use in over 7 years.

Last week we hear Kerry moaning about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, saying that the "Senate must learn whether he (Roberts) has clear, consistent principles" and "I will be active and vigilant". If that's true, why is Kerry hanging around the sports stars and celebrities in France instead of being in his office working?

See this report in the current Atlantic Monthly to read how Kerry is Congress's most absent member, all while drawing a salary that he isn't entitled too. Hypocrisy at it's highest.

And to think that this great country came within a few percentage points of having the two guys pictured at right in the White House.

But the worst of all of course, was having a pleasant Saturday morning watching the penultimate stage of the Tour de France absolutely ruined by being forced by OLN to listen to Kerry blabble on about meaningless crap. Here is one of his lines regarding Lance Armstrong maybe becoming a politician, "He understands the seriousness of a number of different choices". What?