Landis's Walk on the Wild Side

One observation kicked around our group, when not sucking air, during today's ride: Seems like very few Tour riders are speaking out against the fact that Floyd Landis appears to have cheated them. It's quiet. Too quiet. You'd think they would be angry...unless.

"And the peleton goes doo do doo do doo do do doo..."

Observation #2: All I know about farming I've learned from watching Field of Dreams seven times—I can't turn off that movie—but it appears many of the poor farmers in southwestern Illinois are losing their corn even without building ballfields. We rode through thousands of acres of scorched, dried-out corn that just a few weeks was green and healthy. I feel for them. Heat and drought: Deactivated.

Observation #3: Watching Diesel blow by a 10-foot-wide farm tractor moseying along a 12-foot-wide country road made all the day's pain worthwhile — at least for a few seconds. Then I realized we had to follow him past.

Observation #4: It was good that JPD's jersey pockets were big. After reassembling his bike, which was just shipped back from the duathlon champsionships in Newfoundland, he lost a few pieces along the way. Who knew you could stuff a bike seat and aerobars into a jersey?

Observation #5: Diesel actually will sit up and slow down for a few seconds, but only if a horsefly gets trapped in his jersey.