Surreal

Two (semi-)surreal things I'd like to mention.

First, the weather in Budapest this weekend was wretched.  From Friday until yesterday (Tuesday), we had highs in the mid- and low-50s paired with near constant rain and howling wind.  Wind substantial enough to litter the sidewalks with small branches and clumps of leaves.  To go from improving weather, with some sunny days and temps in the 70s to four days of endless cold, gray, rainy, and windy is bizarre.  At some times I felt transported to a different time and place; at others like the weather was mimicking that impending-doom atmosphere that blows in right before a big storm, despite the absence of any big storm here.

Second, the favorites in the Giro d'Italia (Vinokourov, Evans, Basso, Nibali) today gave up nearly 13 minutes to a 50+ man breakaway group.  Now, with 10 days of racing left, a handful of riders from those 50 gained a substantial enough lead to stand a real chance of holding off the (former?) favorites for overall victory.  Wild.  Enormous slip-up on the part of teams BMC (Evans), Liquigas (Bass & Nibali), and Astana (Vinokourov).