Sunday Pictorial: Tennessee Valley And Weekend Tour Recap

Pound for pound, Tennessee Valley is probably our favorite trail. Because it's relatively flat and the trail is a fire road, it is also one of the most family friendly trails in Marin.

The trail starts at a parking lot that's only located a few miles from our house. From there, it's a straight 1.5 miles out to a small beach. There are multiple trails you can take to various other locations, including the famous Coastal Trail. which as the sign notes, will take you right to the Oregon border. The Coastal Trail. which I will likely profile at another time, features a gnarly-ass, monster thre mile climb (at least it feels like three miles). Once you reach the top, if offers panoramic ocean views.

Our hike today was a lot of fun; the kids had a great time and we spent a lot of time "trail running." The Boy really surprised me; he climbed up a mountain -- that's the only way to really describe it -- that was such a high vertical climb that a group of adults stopped to watch him. The pictures attached don't do this justice; it was really a site to behold. It's interesting because for the most part, he's a tentative kid but he's exceptionally comfortable climbing fairly steep pitches. I think rock climbing is definitely in his future, which would be very cool by me.
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Two great days at The Tour. I woke up early yesterday and today to watch both the time trial and today's first day in the Pyrhenees and both days were classic. I said this last week but without question, this is shaping up to be one of the best tours in a long, long while.

Back in the "old" days, the strategy was predictable: try to stay with Lance as long as possible and hope that he was having an off day. When he was "on" (which he mostly was), the goal was simply to limit losses.

This tour is completely different; there is no patron and no clear cut favorite and everyone is attacking left and right. It is just awesome; mano e mano duel after duel.

I could go on, but the net net is Rasmussen had the time trial of his life yesterday - he may have made a pact with the devil -- and after today, he has to be taken *very* seriously. A few days ago I called him a one trick pony but as of today, but after today, he has to be considered the prohibitive favorite. Look for the Discovery Boys to take it to him big time tomorrow. They need to crack him or they are gong to be racing against the clock, literally, in next Saturday's time trial.

Contador, the winner of today's stage, is my new favorite rider. He's a freaking climbing machine and I love him. He's got big kahuna's and even though this is only his second tour, he's taking it right to the big guys. I have a very strong feeling based on his style that Lance has been proving him counsel

Levi has mostly been unexceptional in my opinion -- and yet he is in fourth place and is well within striking distance. I'm not sure if he's got a trick or two up his sleeve but it would be great to see launch an attack of his own. To date, all he's really done is mark others. If you are going to win this thing, you need to do it with some degree of panache, and he hasn't shown much thus far.

The other main dude is Popo. He is having a great tour and with the rise of Contador, I would not be surprised if he left Disco next year so he can be the GC guy for another team.

Anyway, enough on that for now. Another monster stage tomorrow.
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On the topic of cycling, i got in quite a bit myself this weekend: 30 miles on the road bike yesterday and today got on the mountain bikel (China Camp) for two hours with a friend. It ws great riding and all was good until the end, when two yellow jackets someone managed to get inside my jersey (while I was bombing a descent) and bit the crap out of me. In the event you are curious, yellow jacket bites hurt badly.