If it’s time for Le Tour de France in France, it’s time for Le Tour de Milk Crate in Eugene. Le Tour de France opened Saturday with a stage from the treacherous Passage du Gois, on French Atlantic coast to Mont des Alouettes.

In Le Tour de Milk Crate, meanwhile …

opening day featured an unforgiving pace, as competitors raced through Passage deFazio down to the mill race in Alton Baker Park for the fishing derby that is often part of Le Tour de Milk Crate. (Click on the photo to enlarge, and you can see he’s carrying his flyrod in his right hand.)