Bicycle! Bicycle!

First things first, Matthew has NOT (yet) shaved his legs. He has been bitten by the biking bug pretty severely and is getting out on his trusty steed as often as he can lately. He's done plenty of biking before (the AIDS Rides and spinning with friends in the basement come to mind), but he's done gone and taken it up a notch.

After salivating over the streamed Web cast of the Giro d'Italia, he was thrilled to be able to take in a couple of stages of the Minnesota Bike Festival's Nature Valley Grand Prix right here in southern Minnesota. The race included such biking supserstars as Floyd Landis and Kristin Armstrong. Matthew and Leah attended the third race in Canon Falls and then we all went out to see the action in Uptown the next day.

They held a kid's race every day before the pro races. After watching the race in Canon Falls, Leah pumped her little leggies all the way to the finish line in Uptown to earn a medal. Woo Hoo, Leah!

Then, with plastic clappers at the ready, we watched and cheered the women's and men's groups compete on the six turn, pancake-flat course. Because of all the turns, there was a lot of dynamic speed and depending on where you watched, all the riders were either slowing down into a turn, or cranking on the the pedals coming out of one. I was duly impressed with the professionalism and by the sheer power of all these riders. It was a balmy, mostly overcast day, and the breeze produced by the passing peloton was fast and chilly!

If you've got a few mintes to spare, grab your water bottle, hike up your bike shorts, and enjoy our little, slap-dash video of the event.