Wheels

The other day I was encouraged to watch the Tour de France, which is some bicycle race in France. I did, and enjoyed the scenery very much.

Of personal interest, the guy who finished second that day was riding a Bianchi. When I bought my bike last year I'd never heard of that manufacturer, but I bought one because it was cheap. It was also on clearance sale because the frame is a very small, unpopular size. I guess they're okay. Mine has held together, and has only had one flat. Other than tightening things up, not really anything to fuss over. There are twisty things on the grips to change gears, but, while easier, they're no more exact than the old levers.

In spite of the fact that mine is one-tenth the cost of the ones they ride, there's don't include !@(Bikedtl.jpg:L120 popimg: "Bike Detail")a bell. Sure, they have fancy, pricey parts and are made of carbon fibre, but my bike has different things.

The TV coverage wasn't very good. The announcers suck and from what I saw they absolutely refuse to show or focus on any of the bikes. I figure the bikes are the point, but I guess the public is more interested in the people. One of them has only one testicle, which would seem to give him a weight advantage, but I think I saw a female rider whom I'm guessing has none.

The camera cut away when one rider was preparing for a "nature break," and I gotta say I have no idea how one could do that while riding in those chamois-lined shorts. Even more puzzling is how the woman would do it. The rider, however, was considerate enough to go to the side of the pack.

Formula One is having a race this weekend, too.

!@(gb_circuit.gif:L120 popimg: "Silverstone")

Somewhat timely, the race is in Great Britain. I like this track, the Maggots-Becketts-Chapel curves are a great twisty bit. (On the layout picture the labels show the gear, the speed (in both KPH and MPH) and the g-force. For the Timing points, marked by T, they display the time to shoot for).

It's my belief that anything that moves is a fun thing to race. The things that don't move, like flagpoles and treehouses, are sometimes used for endurance contests. Humans just need to compete, I guess, even though it causes lots of grief.

When they rode over the bridge across the Rhine into Germany it looked pretty cool.