The weather Tuesday night had a tinge of Fall in it....    Temperatures hovered around 68 degrees and the breeze came out of the W-NW at around 8mph.  

Five TTers rolled to the start line.  We had another new TTer - Welcome Elliot !     Ken T scorched the course in a Fastest Man Time (FMT) of 25:43(23.33mph).  He had skipped last week and apparently was fully recovered.  He was only one second off of his best 2025 time.  Only 5 seconds behind was Mike H on his Road rig at 25:48(23.25mph).    Jade Barth took to FWT honors by slicing through the course in a PR time of 29:11(20.55mph). She reduced her inaugural TT last week by 29 seconds!

My gut feeling is the conditions were slightly less favorable this week than compared to last week.  Based on the results of regulars John R and Hop I'd say it was about 20 seconds slower.  I'd rate last week as a 9 out 10 favorable and this week 7.5-8 out of 10.  Average.

The Vuelta a Espana Grand Tour is rolling along !  Day 7 is today.

Notes:   I couldn't believe how slippery the wet roads were on Stage 2.  Viewing the riders falling on one of the round-abouts looked like they were on ice.  Incredible!   Crashes on both sides of the round about. Some GC riders like Vingegaard and Pitcock were involved.  Pidcock miraculously missed slammed into a pole.  Vingegaard team mate, Axel Zingle,  had to have his shoulder  reset into its socket.  No replay of Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 2 - at least we weren't allowed to see it as they took him to the ambulance.  A few minutes later he was back on his bike.   He managed to finish the stage, but, dislocated the shoulder again just reaching for something in his back pocket after the finish line.  His shoulder wasn't stable enough to continue the Vuelta.

In stage 5 we have protesters randomly jumping in the course to block a team's passage on the team time trial.  Luckily four riders managed to slip by relatively unempeded.  Several had to stop cold.  Despicable !  

While there has been some fireworks, there haven't been any major general category implications.   Only Juan Ayuso, one of the pre-race favorites, has dropped out of contention with his rough stage 6.  He rebounded by winning stage 7.  Race favorite Vingegaard had the red jersy, but, willingly gave it up.   The big climbs are next week.  He's keeping his powder dry.

 Adios!

PS:   Isn't Axel Zingle a great name for cyclist ?!