Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Today is the second rest day in this year's Tour de France. Many of the riders are beaten up already, but there are four mountain stages and an individual time trial yet to complete. The final day—Sunday—is usually a formality, with the leader of the Tour riding triumphantly into Paris. Here is tomorrow's stage. The first climb is long and steep. It will break the peloton into several pieces. Only the best climbers will stay at the front. The second climb is also long and steep, but the descent to the finish should allow stragglers to catch back on. Mark Spahn wrote the other day that he finds cycling boring. I laughed when I read that, because there is nothing in this world that I find more interesting. Cycling is chess on the roadway, just as baseball is chess on grass. That's okay, Mark. Each of us finds some things fascinating and other things boring. Life itself would be boring if this weren't the case.

Speaking of cycling, I had a great time Saturday with my home boys. There was no rally (except in Paris, which is too far away), so we met at a restaurant on the outskirts of Mineral Wells, which is 60 miles west of my Fort Worth house. I love the terrain in this area. There are mesas, reservoirs, and steep hills. It's hard to get a good average speed in this part of North Texas because of the undulating terrain. But our goal wasn't speed. It was fitness and camaraderie. Phil, Randy, Bryce, and I—three old men and a stud—rode 63.5 miles, stopping three times for water. It was warm and sunny, with an average wind speed of eight miles per hour and gusts up to 15. The wind was out of the north, so it wasn't as humid as usual. It felt great. My overall average speed for the 63.5 miles was 16.03 miles per hour. (Elapsed time = 3:57:40.) I averaged 16.05 miles per hour for the first 32.1 miles and 16.01 miles per hour for the remaining 31.4 miles. Our pace was steady the whole morning. My maximum speed was 41.6 miles per hour. My maximum heart rate, reached on Cherry Pie Hill, was 155. My average was only 115, which shows that I didn't work very hard. I did, however, burn 2,064 calories. I hope my home boys had as much fun as I did.