Allen Gathman

This Wednesday was the last one before classes resume at the University, so Laura wanted to schedule the ride to Trail of Tears State Park.  She’s been pushing for this most of the summer, so this was the last chance.  Trail of Tears is about 15 miles from Burritoville in Cape Girardeau, where the Wednesday Night bunch (aka, for reasons that are best left obscure, the David Hassellhof 5) meet at 10 PM for beer and biking.

After the obligatory stop for beer,

we headed north out of town.  There’s something visually impressive about a group of a dozen bikes, adorned with assorted lighting, out on a country road at night.  My photo doesn’t really do it justice.

We were a very strange sight indeed to the few motorists who passed us.  One of the nice things about riding on Wednesday nights is that a) there’s not much traffic and b) most of it is sober.

We made it to Trail of Tears, where we sat around in the road and had a beer.

Fortunately, the park was closed, so no traffic there.  We made it back to Cape about 1 AM, stopped in a parking lot to drink another beer, and headed back to Burritoville in a rapidly diminishing pack as various participants peeled off to go home.

All in all, a fun evening.  Most of the DH5 gang don’t get out on the road for long rides very much, being more townie types, so it was a nice challenge out in hilly Cape county for them.   I don’t ride much in groups, so that was a nice change for me — and of course, I get a bit loopy when I’m out that long after my bedtime.   There were a few long-haul types there for a change, too.  Tim drove up from Sikeston, outfitted with a set of headlights that I kept thinking was an overtaking car.  And Rick brought his touring bike and his grey hairs to join the kids, too:

A good time had by all as usual.  I was in bed by 3 AM, and up by 7:30.  I am probably too old for this s**t.

We have apples.  When we moved into the house in 1994, there was one small apple tree almost buried in the tall grass:

Later I bought four apple trees and planted them.  This seems like maybe five years ago.  When I went to look up information about them in my garden notebook yesterday, I was astounded to find out that this happened in 1998.
One of those trees died in a very hot, dry summer in 2002.   Another one, despite several efforts to prop it up, has fallen completely over on its side, and I’m just letting it be that way.  Two of the new ones, though, and the one that came with the house, are doing well and bearing a lot of fruit.

That’s the same tree that came with the house, by the way, now all grown up.

I decided that the fruit on two of the trees was ready to pick, and I wound up filling a laundry basket and a large box with apples. Here are some of them -

They’re more or less organic, since I never manage to get around to buying sprays and putting out fertilizer. I did spray some roundup on the poison ivy underneath the one that came with the house this year. In any case, they certainly look organic. They taste good, though. The tree that came with the house is susceptible to cedar apple rust, a fungal disease that is endemic here in the ubiquitous eastern red cedar trees. The ones I bought are all cedar apple rust resistant, so the spots on their apples are all just from bugs.

Today I need to peel, core, and slice a buttload of apples and freeze apple pie filling.

My grandmother, Lillian (Craig) Lamson, moved to south Florida sometime in the late 1930s.  My father moved down about 1938, met my mother, and married her there in 1940.   South Florida wasn’t quite  a howling wilderness by then, but it was a lot less developed than it is now.  I just scanned some of my father’s old photos, including a couple that are sort of historic.

Here are my parents in maybe 1940 — photo was undated:

And no, my mom was not 12 at the time, despite appearances.  She was 29, I think, and divorced.

And here are my mother, my grandmother, and some blonde babe sitting on a palm tree over the Loxahatchee River.

It was taken on September 10, 1939 (Yes, mom and dad were just dating at the time).  So were two more pictures on the Loxahatchee — labeled in pencil on the back “Trapper Nelson’s”.

Trapper Nelson was a Russian-American from New Jersey who settled on the Loxahatchee River in the 1930s, where he eventually had a zoo and fishing camp, popular among socialites who wanted to rough it in the wilds of the Florida interior.  Apparently my folks were among his early fans.  I don’t see him in these photos; I think that the guy in front of the table in the lower picture is someone named “Willie” on other pics, and the guy behind it is my dad.  But who took the pictures?

So St. Louis held its first World Naked Bike Ride on Saturday night.   Naturally I went; it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to get publicity for the cause of reducing our dependence on oil, cutting CO2 emissions, and improving people’s health.  And of course, taking off your clothes.  Did I?  Well, the police made it clear in advance that total nudity would not be tolerated, although it appears that lots of people got away with it, not to mention lots more who relied on body paint.

I’d estimate about 200 riders, on a 15 mile route through downtown St. Louis.   We passed Busch stadium just after the game ended, so the sidewalks were packed with cheering spectators.   Will they all go home, park their cars, and start riding bikes to work?  Probably not.   But there may be a few more people inspired to quit buying so much $4 gasoline.

Anyway, a fun time for a good cause.

There’s been a fair amount of news coverage:

Post-Dispatch

KMOX

Wim held on to last place today, earning a place in history as the only three-time Lanterne Rouge in the Tour de France.  He was only 53 seconds behind Bernhard Eisel of Team Columbia after yesterday’s time trial, and although the last stage is largely ceremonial, anything can happen.   Today he finished 1:08 behind the stage winner, and well behind the main field of riders.  A few guys finished after Wim, but only one had the same time: Eisel.  I’d guess that Wim must have been sticking to Eisel all day, just to make sure he didn’t some how get ahead of him and spoil his third Lanterne Rouge finish.

Reports have it that Wim is likely to retire from competitive riding after this year’s tour, and now he can do so as a record holder, even if it’s a record that doesn’t show up on the official Tour de France site.

Way to go Wim!

As you will remember, Wim Vansevenant had to thread a needle today in the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, an individual time trial.   Yesterday Bernhard Eisel lost 13 1/2 minutes relative to Wim’s overall time, becoming the new Lanterne Rouge by 42 seconds.  In order for Wim to make history by earning the Lanterne Rouge for the third Tour in a row, he had to come in at least 43 seconds slower than Eisel today.

Not too difficult, perhaps; Eisel beat Wim by a full minute in the shorter time trial in stage 4, and he got to start the TT after Eisel today, so he’d know the time to beat.  However, Eisel’s crashed repeatedly during this tour, and the group he finished with yesterday were all so beat up and bandaged that they might have been the cast of The Mummy Returns.  What if Eisel was on his last legs yesterday?  Today he might have finished outside the time limit (1.25 times the winner’s time) and been disqualified.  Today Wim had to race fast enough to stay inside the time limit — something I’m probably not capable of on my best day — while ensuring that, if Eisel was also inside the limit, he’d finish at least 43 seconds behind him.  A lot of calculations to make on the fly while performing in a world-class sporting event.

Well, the nice thing about the individual time trial is that they start in reverse order of their standing in the general classification, so by the time I got up this morning, Wim and Eisel had both already finished the race.

Vansevenant:  1:14:47

Eisel: 1:13:12

Vansevenant came in 1:35 behind Eisel; by my calculations, he’s back in last place by a margin of 53 seconds.   Close, but a deficit he should be able to maintain tomorrow all the way to the Champs-Élysées.   Nobody else is within striking distance — Sven Kraus was the closest, 1:12 ahead of Wim yesterday, and finished well ahead of him today.  What about the cutoff time?  Wim’s okay as long as the winner doesn’t come in under 51:49, a superhuman 38 mph average speed.  That looks safe so, I’d say unless something weird happens tomorrow, Wim’s going to make history by coming in last in the Tour de France a third time.  Go Wim!

Oh, yeah, and this stage will probably decide the yellow jersey too.   It would be nice if Cadel Evans won, so that Silence-Lotto could make bookends around the tour.

Update:  It’s official.  Wim’s again the Lanterne Rouge of the TdF, and only the flat stage to Paris remains.  Teammate Cadel Evans didn’t pull out an overall victory, though, and will be 2nd to Carlos Sastre.

More on Wim and the Lanterne Rouge at the TdF Lanterne Rouge blog.

In his race for a historic third Lanterne Rouge in the Tour de France, Wim Vansevenant hit an unexpected bump today.   I didn’t expect much to happen today, in a mostly flat stage.   The peloton usually stays together, and a breakaway of guys with no chance in the overall contention goes off the front, trying to stay ahead long enough to get a stage win.  But today I watched the news flashes with some concern as a group of 9 riders fell off the back of the peloton — including Team Columbia’s Bernhard Eisel.

Eisel was a comfortable 12 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of Wim at the end of yesterday’s stage, and who’s going to lose that much time on a flat stage?  Well, Eisel’s group lost almost 13 minutes to Wim.  So as of today, Eisel is the Lanterne Rouge, and Wim is 42 seconds ahead of him.

Can Wim still pull this out?  Well, tomorrow is the last individual time trial.  The other ITT this year was stage 4, and Wim lost exactly a minute to Eisel in that one.  Furthermore, this time trial will be 1.8 times as long as stage 4.   Most important, competitors start in reverse order, so Eisel has to go first.  That means Wim will know how much time he needs to lose.

Still, it’s going to make for an interesting day tomorrow.  Both the Maillot Jaune and the Lanterne Rouge are likely to be decided by the same stage.   Go Wim!

As always,  you can get more Tour de France Lanterne Rouge news by going to the Lanterne Rouge Blog.

2006 US Oil consumption 20,687,000 bbl/day
2006 World Oil production 87,000,000 bbl/day
US Oil production 5,102,000 bbl/day
(Source: DOE)Potential increase from offshore  and ANWR drilling: 3,000,000 bbl/day
Potential decrease in demand from higher fuel efficiency standards:  2,500,000 bbl/day
(Source: Newsweek)

So here’s the deal:

a) Our oil production is a relatively minor part of world oil consumption.
b) Increased exploration and drilling won’t result in more production for at least 5 or 10 years
c) We can get about as much effect more quickly by increasing fuel efficiency standards
d) Not to mention just driving less
e) Not to mention alternative energy sources
f) Oil is a finite resource that has many uses besides burning it
g) We’re going to be sorry if we burn the stuff up now and don’t have it later
h)  We’ll probably find safer ways to extract oil from sensitive places later

So we should spend our time and resources on conservation and alternative energy sources instead of frantically trying to find ways to use up an irreplaceable resource as fast as possible.

Yeah, the Newsweek article cited above presents an argument for more drilling as a stopgap to tide us over.  It’s a shortsighted answer to a long-term problem.  Get a bike.

Knee: It’s getting much better.  I’m able to spin on the trainer without pain, and although it hurts a bit when I do the leg presses that my PT recommended, it’s still improving.  So I figure I’ll be back on the road soon.

Wim:  Still bringing up the rear.  He’s getting a bit more recognition; a blog post on the Bicycling.com web site now.  The man is a rock.  He’s steady, he takes care of his teammates — I saw him in a rare TV appearance when Cadel Evans crashed yesterday and the whole team pulled him back to the peloton — he doesn’t finish dead last most days, but he just finishes far enough back to maintain his overall last place.  He’s 1 min 42 sec behind Matthieu Spreck.

You can’t just fall off the back and finish at midnight (my personal strategy, except that I probably couldn’t make it over the Col du Tourmalet if they gave me all night).  There’s a time cutoff set by the judges for each stage, which depends in an arcane way on the difficulty of the course, the speed of the winner, the phase of the moon, and the quality of the wine served at the judges’ dinner the night before.  One rider, Magnus Backstedt, was already kicked off the tour this year because he came in 5 minutes past the cutoff.

Anyway, it takes a rare combination of high-level athletic skill and personal humility to be the Lanterne Rouge.  Especially 3 times.  Go Wim!

I went to physical therapy on Monday, and the therapist (Todd) thinks it’s just a little irritation of the ligaments.  He gave me a topical treatment with dexamethasone, a steroid, and some exercises to do.  I thought I was pretty damn flexible, but he showed me ways to modify my hamstring and quad stretches that are just LOTS more painful.  Yay.  Anyway, he thinks I should be back to normal within a couple of weeks, and for the moment I can ride a little on the trainer.

Last night I thought I’d go be a spectator at the local Tuesday night criterium.  There were 7 guys racing in all.

Patrick makes a tight turn

I tried flash just this once, but didn’t want to make anyone crash.

This is the artsy shot.

Josh wasn’t actually racing with the kid on the handlebars.

Cool-down lap.

And in a final note, Wim Vansevenant is still on track for a historic third Lanterne Rouge in the Tour de France.  I’d say more, but this topic is much more thoroughly covered in (where else?) the Tour de France Lanterne Rouge blog.