Posts from — July 2012

Epernay to Metz

Distance: 205.0 kilometers.

What a difference a day, or zigging when you should have zagged can make:

The biggest talking point of the stage from Epernay to Metz will be the crash that took out half the peloton with 26km to go. Not only did it force at least three men to abandon the Tour but it caused the likes of Fränk Schleck, Pierre Rolland, Alejandro Valverde, Mark Cavendish and large number of others to lose significant time. The two big pre-race favorites for the general classification – Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins -survived the carnage near Gorze and so too did most of the sprint specialists with the notable exception of Mark Cavendish. While riders like Ryder Hesjedal limped to the finish nursing horrible wounds and moral[sic] that was shot to pieces because they’ve essentially been put out of contention for the yellow jersey even before the first mountain stages, there was still the battle for the prestige of a stage victory taking place up ahead. …

… it will be the casualties that this stage will be remembered for. Tom Danielson abandoned, Schleck, Valverde, and a host of others lost 2’09”; Gesink lost 3’31” and Hesjedal and others lost a massive 13’31”.

In the end four riders have pulled out: Wouter Poels ( Ned – VCD – 126 ), Thomas Danielson ( USA – GRS – 062 ), Davide Vigano ( Ita – LAM – 049 ), and Mikel Astarloza ( Esp – EUS – 032 ). More riders may fail to start tomorrow.

In other news, Peter Sagan managed to win the stage, his third win in this Tour. There was a Category 4 climb at 145 kilometers, Côte de Buxières, and an intermediate sprint, but the crash was the real story today

Fabian Cancellara (Sui-RNT-012) [Yellow]
Peter Sagan (Svk-LIQ-057) [Green] 209 points
Michael Morkov (Den-STB-175) [Polka Dot] 9 points
Tejay Van Garderen (USA-BMC-009) 4 [White]

Team: Sky Procycling ( 101-109 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Peter Sagan (Svk-LIQ-057)
Combative: David Zabriskie ( USA – GRS – 069 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1 Fabian Cancellara ( Sui – RNT – 012 )
2 Bradley Wiggins ( G B – SKY – 101 ) + 00′ 07”
3 Sylvain Chavanel ( Fra – OPQ – 192 ) + 00′ 07”
4 Tejay Van Garderen ( USA – BMC – 009 ) + 00′ 10”
5 Denis Menchov ( Rus – KAT – 131 ) + 00′ 13”
6 Cadel Evans ( Aus – BMC – 001 ) + 00′ 17”
7 Vincenzo Nibali ( Ita – LIQ – 051 ) + 00′ 18”
8 Peter Sagan ( Svk – LIQ – 057 ) + 00′ 19”
9 Andréas Klöden ( Ger – RNT – 015 ) + 00′ 19”
10 Maxime Monfort ( Bel – RNT – 016 ) + 00′ 22”

The Rest of the Top 30:
[Read more →]

Synchronized Sleeping

ZZZ…zzz…ZZZ…zzz…

[Editor: The now juvenile kits, Weasel on the left and Lutu {Lucrezia also) assume the standard ‘J’ position. Weasel is of the opinion that, if he can’t see you, you can’t see him.]

Friday Ark

Rouen to Saint-Quentin

Distance: 196.5 kilometers.

André Greipel has taken his second stage in a row to go one up in his private battle with Mark Cavendish. This will continue as this is a much flatter Tour than last year.

Marcel Kittel ( Ger – ARG – 211 ) withdrew before the start of the stage, so the field is down to 194 riders. He was obviously having problems yesterday as he was listed in the second to the last position which is not normal for a team’s number 1 rider.

Fabian Cancellara (Sui-RNT-012) [Yellow]
Peter Sagan (Svk-LIQ-057) [Green] 155 points
Michael Morkov (Den-STB-175) [Polka Dot] 9 points
Tejay Van Garderen (USA-BMC-009) 4 [White]

Team: Sky Procycling ( 101-109 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: André Greipel (Ger-LTB-114)
Combative: Matthieu Ladagnous ( Fra – FDJ – 144 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1. Fabian Cancellara (Sui-RNT-012)
2. Bradley Wiggins (GBr-SKY-101) + 07
3. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra-OPQ-192) +07
4. Tejay Van Garderen (USA-BMC-009) +10
5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor-SKY-102) +11
6. Denis Menchov (Rus-KAT-131) +13
7. Cadel Evans (Aus-BMC-001) +17
8. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita-LIQ-051) +18
9. Ryder Hesjedal (Can-GRS=061) +18
10. Andréas Klöden (Ger-RNT-015) +19

The Rest of the Top 40:
[Read more →]

To distract myself I finally partitioned my second disk and loaded Ubuntu on it.

Things went fairly well, with Precise Pangolin [AKA ubuntu 12.04 LTS], and the desktop looks familiar to a Windows user, but all is not sweetness and light. For some reason the Help system is displaying the manual as white text on a white background. I can see the graphics and the links, but the text itself is invisible. There must be a setting somewhere that will address that problem, but it seems to be unique to my installation.

Another annoyance is that I can’t simply do a reboot from Windows and bring up the boot manager, as there apparently isn’t enough time for the system to recognize that I’m pressing a key, so I have to shut down then access the manager during the longer power up sequence.

I’m certain I can fix that problem with a Linux boot utility, and just set the Linux drive as the primary boot.

I really need a book. I’m happier with a paper copy and good index. I realize that the electronic versions are more convenient, but I really like actual books.

Abbeville to Rouen

Distance: 214.5 kilometers.

André Greipel took this stage, after getting out maneuvered by Mark Cavendish at the finish of Stage 2. Even though he is a constant threat to win stages, he is over 4 minutes back at 73^rd. It is very easy to lose time in the race, but extremely difficult to make it back. You have to break free of the peloton, the main group of riders, to make up time on them. The entire group gets the same time as the first person in the group to cross the finish.

Maarten Tjallingii (Ned-RAB-158) is the latest rider to withdraw, but most other things are generally unchanged.

Fabian Cancellara (Sui-RNT-012) [Yellow]
Peter Sagan (Svk-LIQ-057) [Green] 147 points
Michael Morkov (Den-STB-175) [Polka Dot] 9 points
Tejay Van Garderen (USA-BMC-009) 4 [White]

Team: Sky Procycling ( 101-109 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: André Greipel (Ger-LTB-114)
Combative: Arashiro Yukiya (Jpn–EUC – 022 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1. Fabian Cancellara (Sui-RNT-012)
2. Bradley Wiggins (GBr-SKY-101) + 07
3. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra-OPQ-192) +07
4. Tejay Van Garderen (USA-BMC-009) +10
5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor-SKY-102) +11
6. Denis Menchov (Rus-KAT-131) +13
7. Cadel Evans (Aus-BMC-001) +17
8. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita-LIQ-051) +18
9. Ryder Hesjedal (Can-GRS=061) +18
10. Andréas Klöden (Ger-RNT-015) +19

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…

Independence wasn’t really achieved until September 3, 1783 when Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, and, to be factual, our current government only dates from March 4, 1789 when the first government under our Constitution was installed.

Liberty was not extended to all men until December 6, 1865 with ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, nor were women given the one of the most important rights of men until August 26, 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment recognizing their votes.

In truth, until July 2, 1964 when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, there was no mechanism to force government to recognize the rights of all American citizens.

While I’m still slogging along with the new computer, I was tied up today with Ringo. She is at the vet’s with a broken jaw, and surgery will be required to fix it.

The vet and I have our suspicions as to how it happened, but at the moment we know she wasn’t struck by a car or in a fight with another creature.

The vet is pumping her full of antibiotics, fluids, and pain killers, to prep her for the surgery. It isn’t clear when it happened, because she was still going about her routine this morning, even though she had to be in pain. She is tough and does things her own way, if she didn’t she wouldn’t be Ringo.

Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer 197.0 kilometers.

Peter Sagan (Svk-LIQ-057) took his 2^nd stage win today, but because of the way time is recorded he is still in 15^th overall, 23 seconds behind Cancellara, who made his time in the Prologue time trial.

Jose Joaquin Rojas (Esp-MOV-169) and Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr-SKY-109) are the first two riders out, withdrawing before the stage began. There were a number of accidents yesterday, and they may have been injured.

While the same people continue to wear the important jerseys, the top ten has changed. Philippe Gilbert (Bel-BMC-004) who was in 7^th has dropped to 104^th overall 7 minutes and 58 seconds back.

The new top ten:

1. CANCELLARA Fabian (Sui-RNT-012)
2. WIGGINS Bradley (GBr-SKY-101) + 07
3. CHAVANEL Sylvain (Fra-OPQ-192) +07
4. VAN GARDEREN Tejay (USA-BMC-009) +10
5. BOASSON HAGEN Edvald (Nor-SKY-102) +11
6. MENCHOV Denis (Rus-KAT-131) +13
7. EVANS Cadel (Aus-BMC-001) +17
8. NIBALI Vincenzo (Ita-LIQ-051) +18
9. HESJEDAL Ryder (Can-GRS=061) +18
10. KLÖDEN Andréas (Ger-RNT-015) +19

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I expected at least a hundred updates from M$ when I connected to the ‘Net, but there were only 78 which came in at something over 200MB. Then there was the 500+MB XP Virtual Machine that can only be downloaded with IE.

I transferred a lot of software from the laptop, but I still need to get a new copy of Ubuntu, so it isn’t over yet.

The easiest software to move to a new machine is my e-mail program, Pegasus. You copy the directory, and then run the installation program. The install sees that everything is there, so it just plugs it into Windows in less than a minute. I have copies of all of my saved e-mails, and the settings for all of my e-mail accounts are intact.

Everyone else wants a clean install, so I’m having to remember/find account names and passwords.

The box is about an inch too tall to fit properly under the desk, so I’ll have to rearrange furniture to move it at some point.

The fun never stops.

At the end of the second stage, Visé to Tournai 207.5 Kilometers, none of the jerseys changed backs, and the top ten remains the same.

It wasn’t boring because the Supermanx, Mark Cavendish of the Isle of Man, is still piling up stage wins. He waited until the leaders were past the 250-meters-to-go point, and zipped in for his 21^st stage win. He isn’t winning based on pure speed, he just knows when to make his final sprint to edge out everyone else.

I’m messing around with multiple computers which limits my time, so I wasn’t very good at ‘finding the REAL official site’. It wasn’t the site that dealt with results last year, and looked like it was set to do it again this year. Nor was it the site linked to by the BBC. They have an all new site that they are actually updating, but in a totally different format so that none of my spreadsheets will work without a lot of screwing around.

I will get it done, but it will take a while.

In the meantime, at the end of the first stage Fabian Cancellara is in the Yellow Jersey he won in the Prologue time trial, and holds the lead among sprinters, but the stage winner, Peter Sagan, is wearing the Green Jersey. Michael Morkov is the first to don the Polka Dots, while Tejay Van garderen won the right to the White in yesterday’s time trials.

Sky is the first team to put on the Yellow Helmets, something new this year, as the leading team.

The top 10 are:

1. CANCELLARA
2. WIGGINS +07 seconds
3. CHAVANEL +07
4. VAN GARDEREN +10
5. BOASSON HAGEN +11
6. MENCHOV +13
7. GILBERT +13
8. EVANS +17
9. NIBALI +18
10. HESJEDAL +18

La fête du
Canada
Day

Thank you for not yet building a fence along your southern or western border, and for brewing great beer.

Schedule of Ottawa events and some background.