Climb like a butterfly and sting like a bee

So yesterday I was walking through the yard when I feel this instant sharp pain in my right leg down by my ankle. I must have jumped 2 feet in the air while brushing my leg with my hand in a sweeping motion. A yellow jacket bee got me good as I walked by its underground hive. It hurt like crazy for a few seconds then started to itch. I went on with daily life as Eric Thompson came over in the evening to go swimming and fishing with me. It was fun because we anchored the boat a ways away from one of those water trampolines across the lake and did a few flips off of it. The sun fish were vicious, nipping at us all the time. Then we fished for a couple hrs. I was teasing Eric about how a rookie always catches the most weeds. Then he pulls up a 24inch northern. I recovered pretty good by reeling in a 17inch bass a while later. Anyways afterwards we watched the tour and I noticed how swollen my foot was. It had grown like a balloon. It doesn't hurt its just a bit tight and warm. So now I ice it and elevate for a while. I thought of the move "Pure Luck" with Martin Short where he gets stung by a bee in the airplane and his face swells up without him noticing. That was a classic movie.

I switched to my compact cranks for the France trip which is in a couple weeks. I really like it. 50-34X12-25 is what I'll be running. I know if I was running a 53-39X12-25 I would be halfway up the climb looking back to see if I have another gear.If the Pro Tour riders put them on their bikes and their threshold is well over 100+ watts greater then me, I think I'm going to need it. And with day in and day out climbing, spinning the climbs is going to save the legs for the next day.fellow MN cyclist Dan Cleary is over in France right now enjoying the alps and the Tour so check his blog out.

Richard Virenque over here however, is going to keep the big gears up front and put either a 12-25 or a 12-27 on the back.