Now this stuff is getting serious!

Saturday was July 2nd, which this year means the start of the Tour de France. As you know, I go a bit crazy about the race, so I hope you'll all be very patient with me over the next 20+ days.

This is the actual size you have to race in the Tour

The first two days of the race have had some surprising results; A crash on day 1 in the middle of the peloton caught 2 time defending champion Alberto Contador over a minute down to all of his main rivals, including Andy Schleck. Then, Garmin-Cervelo a strong team but one that's never won a stage in the Tour, took the team time trial, with both Radio Shack and Saxo Bank (Contador's team) performing less well than expected.  Contador is down almost 2 minutes from the leader and almost as far back from the main players, and the tour is barely going. Should make for an exciting 3 weeks.

Speaking of exciting, We've had the most amazing weekend. With the prospects of Rach finding work in Boston getting slimmer with each passing day, we've started doing all the "Hey, someday we should..." things that we can only do while we're out here. One of those things was whale watching. We got a terrific deal for a chance to go do it, so we took it, and it was an amazing experience. It was a long boat ride, but for 30 minutes we were surrounded by whales.

I took a lot of pics, but this was the best one

The other highlight of the trip for me was finally getting to see the Boston Harbor Light. I really like lighthouses, and it's one of the most famous lighthouses in the US, and it was so close to my house, but I could never see it. It's only visible by boat or one of the islands of Boston Harbor.

The Boston Harbor Light. Another one off the list

Saturday morning, before all that excitement we had a long ride scheduled. Because of the time constraints of the week and a focus on running before Monday's Harvard Pilgrim 10k, it was the first time we'd been on the bike in a week.We'd planned to do 66 miles, but Rachelle had an allergic reaction to something in the air; it was so bad she felt like her skin was on fire. Rachelle stopped after 20 miles to go home, shower, and take some medicine. I on the other hand felt pretty fresh, so I decided to do another 20 miles. 3 hours and 40 miles was a pretty good ride. I was a little slower than I wanted to be, but I have the time to get to where I want to be, and especially during the tour, I have all sorts of motivation.

And if I wasn't already motivated enough (70 days til the race?? Holy crap!), I got my Team Fight kit in the mail today. To say I was super excited was an understatement.

The blue sox aren't part of the kit, but I'm going to treat them that way. A humorous cycling-related twitter account @ANONCX worked with the sock company Defeet to produce some sports socks that the profits for each pair went to an animal charity. The fact that they sort fo match my new kit (which at least partially fits, and the rest soon will) means I'll be wearing them on race day.

Tomorrow is the 10k (well today now that I've finished writing it just after midnight), so tomorrow night I'll finish up my weekend with the race report.