Tag: Wildfires

Hello Everyone:

Welcome to the last week of July. The Tour de France is over, but its concluding week came with a lot of crashes, abandonments, and a change in the General Classification. Due to the extreme temperatures and the wildfires in France, the race had a shortened stage, no ride into Paris for the final day of the race, and a shorter course for the peloton.

Many riders abandoned the race due to crashes and heat exhaustion, but the most disappointing abandonment came when Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the race with a broken collarbone. That meant Remco Evenepoel stepped up and actually gave Pogacar a competitive race in the last couple of stages, as did Richard Carapaz from Ecuador. But nobody could stop Pogi from grabbing his fifth Tour victory nor challenge him after turning in the fastest ascent up Alpe D’Huez in Tour history.

Meanwhile, wildfires both in France and Spain have so far left over 300,00 people without shelter, and the fires are still burning as I bring you this update. The fires have not been contained. Here in the U.S., warmer temperatures return this week as a precursor to the arrival of August with wildfires burning in Canada. There was smoke in the air here in Ohio last week for a day or so, but places like Chicago and New York received the most smoke and the lowest air quality warnings.

August arrives later this week, and already it is the last month of summer, but don’t despair. There is plenty of time and light and events still to come before the temperatures cool and the days get shorter. At the beginning of August, the Tour de France Femmes race occurs, followed by the Vuelta a España in mid August for another two weeks of grand tour racing. No word as to who will be racing in that event, the last grand tour of the season.

With that insight, I will leave you and trust that you’ll have a good and productive week ahead with some good bike rides mixed in.