I biked in the Park this morning.  I got fifteen miles.  I did the bird paparazzi thing and saw a few birds.  I got today’s header, the flying egret.  Speaking of paparazzi, at one of the better watering holes there was a couple, each of whom had a humongous camera.  Their telephoto lenses’ had to be at least six inches across.   I approach quietly to see what they were looking at and after a while it became clear that there really wasn’t anything to see.  They must have been waiting for something to appear.  I swung by again, later in the ride and they were still there, but a woman with her dog came bounding by, a sure way to repel birds.  They have way more patience then me.  I almost ran over a juvinile robin like the one pictured with this post.  It kept running down the bike path, until it finally got the idea and let me pass.

Friday should be an interesting day in the Tour de France.  The bike race heads into the Alps.  Lance is still in third, eight seconds behind the yellow jersey.  However, teammate, Alberto Contador, is between him and the yellow jersey, in second and two seconds ahead of Lance.  The Italian yellow jersey holder Rinaldo Nocentini is in first place, but that crown sits uneasy upon his head.  Minutes can be made or lost in the mountains, so the few second differences between the first three riders are not very consequential.

Continuing with my lessons on French vocabulary related to cycling in general and the Tour de France in particular, I give you the following words:  The autobus or in Italian, grupeto, is the group that rides together to finish within the Tour’s mandatory time limit.  They don’t ride to win, they just ride to finish.  If they don’t keep up, then the last rider or the Lanterne Rouge, the competitor in last place, is expelled from the race. The phrase refers to the red lantern hung on the caboose of a railway train.