If you’re not watching Le Tour, you’re missing a pretty exciting year! Lots of big wins, Cav is close to a big record, MVDP was in yellow…​for a loooooong time, Wout Van Aert totally destroyed the two climbs up Mt. Ventoux — it’s been fun. And there’s been lots of very fun "me-mes" on the interwebs, too. I’m doing a lot of mechanical work at work this week (and a lot of waiting for builds to build) so it’s been nice to have on in the background.

I still haven’t watched La Course yet (but hey: a proper Women’s TdF next year?!!?!), but I’ve been following the Giro Donne on Cycling Tips and DAMN does SD Worx have a deathgrip on it. I’ve been able to see a few highlights on the 'ol YouTube and it’s fun to watch Van Der Breggen beat…​ everyone. She’s amazing. But also, Marianne Vos is also amazing. 30! 30!

I’ve been able to get out quite a bit — if not for super long rides — and I’ve even been able to get some good rides in with friends. Apparently the tires that I put on two+ years ago have worn out…​so I need to fix that, but unfortunately my rim tape on the rear was toast, too. Luckily, I have a pair of tires (not the ideal tires, but they’re good tires and I can live with mini-gravel knobs for a while), and my friend Jim opened a new shop, Battle Road Bikes, up in Arlington, MA, and he was able to get me some new tubeless rim tape. Yay, Jim!

I think I mentioned in a previous post that the Schwinn is dead (long live the Schwinn) but actually this time: the headtube is ovaled and it’s not worth trying to repair. I did manage to sell the replacement I’d built up that ended up too large for me, so I have a little cash in my pocket when it comes time to build up this bike my brother’s left for me in MO: I’m excited to build a bike again, I’m annoyed that parts are so hard to come by right now. Still: bikes!

I’ve updated the reading page so that’s what I’ve been reading. Writing is going slowly but it’s going, you know? I’ve at least caught up on my correspondence, which was…​lagging.