Weekly Photo Challenge: Victory (#2)…victory on le Tour

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you’ll know that my husband loves cycling and we both love watch bike racing, in particular, the Tour de France.  Despite all the drug usage and Lance’s nose-dive from fame, the fact that anyone can complete this race is a miracle in itself.  Cheating, in one form or another, has been taking place since the race began, when some riders took a bus for part of the trip!  There are now riders who pledge that they’re riding clean.  Understandably, thanks again to Lance, many are skeptical of this, but I hope it’s true.  Once you understand bike racing even a bit, it becomes a fascinating sport to follow, particularly when the long hours are enlivened and enlightened by the knowledgeable announcers.

Last year, my husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to be in France during the time of the Tour.  Even better, we were able to be at the end of one of the stages.  It seems funny, even weird, that people would gather for days just to see cyclists whiz past in a matter of seconds, but that’s all part of the fun.  We hiked up over 7km, the end of which had the steepest grade, even including all the mountain stages, of the entire race, just to reach our vantage point 25m from the finish line.  We also sat or stood out for hours for this privilege.  The weather was terrible and we had a blast!  We’d do it all again in a heartbeat, this time hoping for better weather and maybe catching the end of a sprint stage.

Here’s a photo of the winner of the stage and, ultimately, the entire race, Vincenzo Nibali.  This flat bit was at the end of well over a hundred kilometers AND that last, terrible climb.  The cost is written on Nibali’s face.  But the victory is worth the cost.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Victory…the victory of love

This week, Krista is challenging us to show a photo that depicts “Victory.”   A few years ago, we fostered several pit bulls from a wonderful rescue, For the Love of Pits.  Our younger daughter was interested, but my husband was very uncertain about doing this, so the first victory was just convincing him let us give it a try.  Once that hurdle had been cleared, we were on our way to a most rewarding adventure, one partly of learning that many things people think they know about these animals are myth.

Our second victory was taking on, at different times, two lovely and loving dogs who now have forever homes. These two photos are of our second foster dog, Annabelle.  Rescued from a dog fighting ring and sporting plenty of scars, she went from a hungry-for-love, yet hesitant about what to expect from life and people dog, to one of the sweetest dogs you’ll ever meet.  The first photo is from right after we got here, the second after life had been more kind to her.

They might win any photo contests, but then love is hard to measure and quantify.  Because I think I’m confusing people, these two shots are both of Annabelle: the first right after we got her (you can see her scars), the second after she’d had time to settle in and relax with us.  Here are some photos of our first dog, Janie, if you’re interested.