Trés bien, monsieur Voeckler!

I have been enjoying watching Frenchmen Thomas Voeckler mix it up with the favorites at the Tour de France and hang onto the yellow jersey for the last week or so. Even if he can get through the Alps on top, he's going to have a tough time winning it all since Contador and Evans are so much better at time trials. We'll see, but it's hard to believe a French cyclist hasn't won the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985!

Thomas Voeckler kisses (hopefully not goodbye) his precious yellow jersey - go Tommy!

The shop is emptying out a bit since I finished up three bikes on Tuesday evening, and that's a good thing because the heat has even gotten to the basement lately. The past couple of days things were okay with just a fan, and I was really too focused on what I was doing to notice the temperature, but now I think that I finally have to postpone operations until the heatwave breaks.

I’ve had some interesting projects handed to me this year, including what I call “Pro Peleton Service” on my neighbor's Cannondale. Completely taking a bicycle apart for cleaning and re-greasing, etc. may seem a bit extreme, but for a ten-year-old bike that was used heavily and never had any significant work done on it, the service was quite necessary. His bottom bracket (where the pedal axle goes through the frame) was completely dry - not good for the bearings! Turns out he rode in the rain and didn’t realize that water sprays up from the wheels onto the back of the seat post and works its way down the tube into the bracket. Overall this bike was actually very well cared for, and other than some truing of the rims to get a bit of wobble out of them, the job was fairly uncomplicated, just time-consuming.

Sue and Carrick even drummed up some work when out for a drive, coming across a cyclist at the side of the road, struggling with a broken front derailler. In the process of his continued pedal stroke, he had managed to wedge the chain in between his rear wheel and the frame, rendering the bike completely immobile. The rear wheel had screw-on bolts instead of quick-release levers, so he had no way to free the chain. Although they stopped mainly to make sure he was okay, when they found out he lived just a couple blocks from us, they offered a ride and then told him where he could get an inexpensive repair. Now, are they entitled to a finder’s fee?