Stage 10

 Another great day for Pogacar in the Massif Central where 2 years ago the duel between Pogacar and Vingegaard at the stage had been neck and neck to the finish line and Vingegaard taking the win.  This time it was totally different with Pogacar going out on the break alone at 15 km before the end, destroying Carapaz's lead of 1 minute in seconds to go all out for the stage.   Vingegaard couldn't match it and lost time. 

The stage win was Pogacar at 3hr 58' 08" followed by Evenpoel at 3hr 58' 40", Seixas at 3hr 58' 42" and Vinegaard coming in 7th at 3hr 58' 52".   It is good to see Paul Seixas doing so well.  As I said at the beginning of the Tour, he is a boy to watch. 

The GC tonight is 

1. Pogacar        36h 15' 02"

2..  Vingegaard           + 3' 36"

3. Evenpoel                + 4' 06"

4, Ayuso                     +4' 22"

5.  Seixas                  +4 35"

6, Lipowitz               +4.44"

7. Del Toro               +5 08"

8. Skjelmose            +5.45"

9. Martinez               +6.34"

10.  Pidcock           + 11.49"

Tomorrow is stage 11 and Vichy to Nevers.   It is a flat stage and 161 km.  This is a stage where again we will see the bunch sprint finish and I will get to know those names of the sprinters.   Tim Melier is the tip for the stage.    Nevers is a beautiful city and the Loire river passes through.  It is in central France and known to many who have been in search of the chateaux of the Loire region as I have. 

I had a quiet day at home.  Temperatures were in the mid to high 20s here and it was 26C late afternoon. 

I will watch France v Spain to see the skills of the teams that are top in Europe and to see if Wenger is right in saying that Spain can beat France because they are technically better. 

The country makes me despair and I know that Britain is finished but today I prefer not to think too much about it.  On Monday we will have a new Prime Minister that nobody has been asked if they want him and the destruction of Britain continues and nobody in the Labour Party stands against him so he walks into a job that he has not described nor what he stands for nor what he will do for Britain.  The country deserves a General Election. We have a Police Commissioner local election here on Thursday.  I know who I will be voting for.  We have a man that drives from Rotherham in Yorkshire from a county that writers claim has no crime to Dartmoor and murders a defenceless woman and drives back in time for tea.  The lady had many gay friends who respected her as well as Catholics and Church of England friends, all of whom lived happily with mutual respect.  Just because a person does not  profess and openly to love gay marriage or trans or abortions or female priests it does not mean that they cannot and do not love people and they cannot be loved back.  Even David Hockney preferred gay liaisons without marriage, enjoyed smoking without state intervention and valued the Bohemian life style above anything that the state wanted to throw at him.  Ann Widdecombe was a strong woman with values of free speech, personal views and principles just like the rest of us have.  They may collide sometimes but it doesnt't mean we cannot be friends.   One of Widdecombe's best friends wrote a tribute to her at the weekend. He is gay, spoke to her most days including the day before her murder, and they had enormous fun together even if she never went to his wedding, he didn't invite her, she didn't mind and  he didn't mind.  That's friendship on a level that we knew when we were growing up in Britain.   

Spain are 1-0 ahead.  So far Wenger is right.

21.21 hrs

2-0 Wenger's words continue to ring in my ears. 

Spain through to the World Cup Final 2-0, and French hearts broken. 

Spain were brilliant.  

 

Disclosure Day

 Today as I had nothing to do and had spent all day yesterday at home alone I decided to go out to the cinema.   The temperature outside was around about 22C and there was a breeze.  The trains were running. 

 This is the latest Steven Spielberg film and stars Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor and Colin Firth.

I didn't like it at all, I found it boring, stupid, difficult to follow, and I left before the end.   After 30 minutes I felt like I was still waiting for the film to begin.  I stayed for another 45 minutes and nothing improved for me and I left.  I was disappointed in the movie.  I wanted to like it. 

Stage 9 and forthcoming Stage 10 Bastille Day and World Cup

 Stage 9 was reduced from 185.5 to 155.5 km today after Correze was placed under a red heatwave alert.  Removing the opening 30km placed the intermediate sprint at around 15km.  The temperatures were around 37 C.

The stage was one for sprinters and the first in was Van der Poel, followed by Johannessen and third in was British rider Tom Pidcock.  

The GC has one change in that Vacek who suffered today in the heat on the climbs and dropped out of 10th position to 24th and Bernal takes over 10th spot.  The other places are unchanged. 

Tomorrow is the rest day and racing re-commences on Tuesday, Bastille Day, when we have a mountain day again.  I suspect young Paul Seixas will be wanting to make a good show for France on that day.  It should be a good Pogacar and Vingegaard duel.   The stage is stage 10 and  is 166 km, Aurillac to Le Lioran.  Le Lioran is a ski resort in the Auvergne region of central France.  

I watched the England Norway quarter final today as I had nothing better to do and  just to see the tournament through. I've started so I may as well finish. Once again England had a fair degree of luck on their side to come away with a win and a place in the semi finals against Argentina. It was a slow game in the heat of Miami and England did not make a good showing in the second half where they allowed Norway to get on top of them.  Norway scored first in the first half and then Bellingham equalised in stoppage time before half time.  Norway went ahead in the second half but the goal was disallowed because of a shove by Haaland on Anderson before the corner kick was taken.  Personally I saw it as England being wimps and Anderson should have jumped up but in international rules this shove was a foul.  Kane had already been wimpish laying on the ground at the time of the first Norway goal calling for foul and his leg hurt like a baby.  The referee ignored him.   However, with that spell of good luck on their side they managed to get through after extra time with a 2-1 win.  It was a bit of a scrappy game but Bellingham was in the right place at the right time to get the ball in the back of the net twice.   They play Argentina in the semi final on Wednesday at 8pm.  Given this run of luck for England which includes a spidercam wire goal assist last night, I am making no predictions as to the result.  

Sunday

 News came in late last night that a 28 year old white male has been arrested in South Yorkshire on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe.  Devon and Cornwall police have declined to give out any more information than this which must be a good thing whilst investigations are still on-going. 

At least 4 British people trapped in their car  have died in the forest fires in Southern Spain.  Others are missing and unaccounted for including several British people. 

The EU used to send out directives to not clear scrub and allow it to grow.  Five year cycles were recommended.  This was and is bad husbandry and management of land   My brothers  said this would lead to uncontrolled under-growth and be a fire hazard and leaving scrub in this way would result in fields being taken over by brambles and dense and dangerous undergrowth.   This is now happening.  When certain individuals try to second guess why I voted to leave the EU I have said over and over again that I voted to leave the EU because of the stack of directives, bureaucratic, idiotic and many of them downright insulting,  that we as farmers received every year.  Often treated as criminals and talked down to constantly.  Money being taken by Juncker for Luxembourg and the bureaucrats was also high on my list of disagreement with EU membership. 

On personal news, I met my friend C for a lunchtime coffee/tea and chat yesterday.  She requested to see some of my photographs of Azerbaijan so I showed her on my phone.  How different it is now that we don't have a Boots pack of photos to hand over and go through.  However, the phone photos had their advantages in that she was enlarging bits and faces she wanted to see in more detail. C and her husband have both worked in Baku in their oil business where C was a business language teacher and her husband in some kind of supply business that he owned.  

We moved table in Waitrose café at C's request when two toddlers were playing running around the tables next to us.  Later a man came over and spoke to  us about our moving and said he sympathised.  By then the family concerned had left.  We all had a chuckle.

I enjoyed our chat immensely because C and I are on the same wavelength and oh, what a joy that is, no explanations needed when we chat.  We have only known each three or four years and only closely for two years and been meeting up for Saturday coffees now and again during the time that her husband was extremely ill and she needed some respite.  Sadly he has now passed away and she still needs the respite with me she says!

We chatted for two hours, two coffees and a cake each.  I got home at 3pm and felt the happiest I have felt all week.  Apart from the massage on Thursday and the septic tank maintenance man  on Monday I had not seen anybody.  

Hopefully this week I will feel well enough to go to the W.I. meeting and get back into that once more.  I missed the June meeting because on the day I was not well enough to go out.  I also missed the June Creative East session for the same reason.  I also missed the late May session when I first got back from my holiday when my illness was at its peak.  I am missing my Creative East friends.   I am feeling very reclusive this summer in regularly  not seeing anybody for days on end.  I must not slip into this.  It sometimes feels like it felt during Covid lockdown and that is not good.  The blog takes on a greater significance  because it is an opportunity to chat to friends, even it is a one-sided chat, it is still me talking if only to myself!   

Harvest is well underway in Norfolk.  It is a beautiful time of the year seeing the combines in the fields and the corn being cut and to smell the barley as you drive by with the window open.   The growing year comes to its climax and fruition. 

Stage 9 Tour de France and Brive

 The result of today's stage does not change the GC so, again, I won't type it all out.  

A bunch sprint decides the stage and throws up a few new sprint names for me.  Tim Merlier, however, does it again.

The first ten were as follows:  

Merlier, Girmay, Koolj, Philipsen, Bitten, Pluimers, Ackermann, Russo,  Kanter, Fretin. 

Tomorrow's stage, Sunday, Stage 9 is Malemort to Ussel  185.5 km, undulating, or more like hilly and an over 3300 metre elevation gain and then back to almost the same height above sea level as at the start. 

The nearest place I can see that I know near Ussel is Brive where as a teenager with two friends we were put off a train late at night for being on the wrong train in that we had the wrong price tickets and the guard threw us off.  (We had innocently boarded the wrong train in Paris some hours before).   We slept in a fairly isolated station all night and caught the first slow train next morning.  We were heading south.  It was my first trip abroad.  

Favourite for stage 9:  It looks like the finish could throw up some new names or also some we know but haven't heard for a while like Alaphilippe.    Could be Pedersen, or Pidcock or Van Der Poel or Godon.  Outsiders Ben Healey Ion Izaggire, or Plapp.  

Monday is the first rest day. 

By the way, if you don't read my posts because you think the Tour is not for you that is fair enough and totally understood.  However, I would say that in most of my posts there is always something more to read here if you are a close inquisitive reader and interested in the lives of others.  I could write a book about my life and the experiences I have had without children or grandchildren or spouse.  You might be surprised but there is life without children.  There is a whole world out there where you find your own way and you learn a lot in taking the trouble to fix your computer and your smart phone yourself, 

RIP Ann Widdecombe

I heard of her sad death yesterday and then last night saw reports that she had been murdered in her home.   I was watching a real life homicide investigation on television at the time.  It came as a real shock to me and of course the reality of these murder investigations that I am watching.  Whether it was Ann Widdecombe or any other lone woman in a lonely house it is a great tragedy and shocking.  

I see the news this morning is that a young man who was arrested yesterday has been released and is no longer a person of interest. 

I wonder if it was a random robbery that went wrong, perhaps she was not expected to be at home.  

For those overseas who do not know her, Ann Widdecombe was a retired politician and long serving MP in the Conservative Party  and much respected with strong opinions and ethics and loyalty to Britain.  She joined the Reform Party in 2023 and was still active with them.   She was regularly seen on tv political discussions and was also a celebrity contestant in Strictly Come Dancing a few years ago.  

RIP Ann Widdecombe. 

Today's Tour Stage 7 and looking ahead to Stage 8 to Bergerac

 Stage 7 of the Tour was the sprint to Bordeaux and it has not changed the GC rankings from Stage 6 so I won't type them all out again.  Pogacar still has the Yellow Jersey. 

The sprint stage today was won by Tim Merlier.  Philipsen came in 5th.  The names in the top ten were Merlier, Waerenskjold, Girmay, Kanter, Philipsen, Bauhaus, Artz, Godon, Pedersen, Van Ashbroeck.  I am hoping by writing them out I will become familiar with the latest crop of sprinters.

Sadly  Torstein Traeen who was in the Yellow Jersey two days ago at the end of Stage 5 has dropped out of the Tour today following his injuries received yesterday on the Col du Tourmalet. 

Tomorrow the Tour goes into the Dordogne area and this is the stage where Cro will be within waving distance.  Stage 8 Périgueux to Bergerac. 

It is 180.4 kilometres, flat and lots of lovely scenery.  

This is another bunch sprint finish stage so the names I am trying to learn, above,  should be in the top 10 stage finish again tomorrow in possibly roughly the same order.   We shall see.  I haven't seen any of the tour today.