Tour de Georgia: The People We Met and Saw

We met and saw a fair bit of interesting people during the Tour de Georgia.

The first day, at Road Atlanta, it was my sincere pleasure to meet Jamie Smith, author of Riders Ready blog and the book entitled Roadie. He was kind enough to sign my copy of his book and we chatted for a while. What an incredibly nice guy!

We also saw a very young slipstream rider who looked like he was launching a breakaway.

Friday, at Dahlonega, we spoke with a nice man from Biloxi, MS who had ridden some of the route the riders did. He mentioned there was a woman by the name of Cheryl in their group who was driving from the south back to Maine, where she lives. I gave him a couple of my business cards so she might contact me if she’d like to ride with us. (I believe she was heading to Freeport.)

In the evening at Enota we met a man from North Carolina that had come down to see the TTT and the remainder of the stages. His son, 12 years old, is a Cat 5 rider in the junior circuit in North Carolina. He also does some cyclocross racing in the fall. We met his son after a while as well. It was cool to meet a young rider and one day we might see him on a continental team or better yet, as a pro-tour member. (Unfortunately we don’t see many junior riders in Maine and it’s nice to know there are pockets within the country that are producing new young riders.)

Saturday I spoke with a woman that was from Texas. She was with a group that was related to Craig Lewis of High Road. They had been following the tour since the start on Monday at Tybee Island. I told her about some of the pictures we took and look for her to contact me for the link to our Flickr page so she can see the photos.

Later that day we stood on the last turn before the finish at the top of Brasstown Bald with a nice young man from North Carolina named Tony. He had driven down the previous night to stay with his in-laws nearby to see the stage. We talked about biking a fair bit and what he does for a living.

On the final stage we were able to see Johan Bruyneel walking around near the start, we saw Bob Stapleton several times, and who can miss Michael Ball at the event? What sporting event can you attend where you can really get up close with the participants? We went to the Braves game while we were in Atlanta. Having a chance to see, or meet the players isn’t even an option.

At the end of the final stage we walked through the area where the teams busses were located. I saw the CSC guys in a motor home and asked Bobby Julich, who was sitting at an open window, if he would sign my jacket. He was very gracious and asked if I wanted everyone to sign it. Sure enough, they all did, even though I know they were tired and just wanted to go back to their hotels. (The only signature that’s missing is that of Jason McCartney and JJ Haedo as they were at the podium to receive their respective awards and recognition.)

The people you meet and see at these events are very friendly and down to earth. We all share a common love of cycling and are at these events to support these teams. Hopefully we’ll see the support of these events grow over time. It would be a shame to see something like the Tour de Georgia not take place because of lack of fan support and/or funding, like other events that were planned for 2007 but didn’t come to fruition such at the Tour of Utah and the Montreal to Boston race. We need more races like the Tour de Georgia and the Amgen Tour of California in this country and perhaps with the strife between the UCI and the ASO that will push us into that direction and bring racing in the States closer to the level seen in Europe.

Day 5: Stage 7, Circuit Race through Downtown Atlanta

It was raining when we awoke. I was really disappointed because I did not want to spend hours on rainy streets in Atlanta to watch the final stage of the Tour de Georgia. However, the upside is that it might keep the crowds away. Good for me as a spectator/amateur photographer, bad for the organizers of the tour and for the riders. As it turned out, the last few drops fell right before the start and the riders shed their rain jackets and left the start.

At the start we saw Famous people such as Johann Bruyneel and Michael Ball. It just amazes me that you can really get up close with these athletes and the team owners/directors. Michael Ball is the kind of person that doesn’t mind posing and allowing someone to have your picture taken with him.

I found out pretty quickly where the best spots to take pictures of the riders were – inside corners and further out on the circuit away from the crowds. Most people tend to stick close to the finish line area and we really made an effort to get to a few different spots on the course for photos. This was the first location, just up the street from the start and on a straight stretch of road:

Then we cut across the city to catch a few turns on a corner further up the course. This is a picture from the first turn:

And this is from the second lap while on that same intersection:

Right after the main field went by during this lap I ran down an adjacent street to see them come through on the same lap but a different stretch. I didn’t make it in time to see the break but I did catch the peloton:

This was a long stretch so we walked opposite of the path of the riders for some other angles and locations. During out venture they came through again before I could arrive at the corner I was seeking.

One would think that they were chasing down the break at this point because they look pretty strung out but they weren’t – the gap remained at about 45 seconds to a minute:

Then I found the corner and it proved to be the best spot for photos. I was about a foot, perhaps less, from the corner and I could literally hear pedals behind me and then hear them click gears as the zoomed out of the corner. If I had moved just a tiny bit to the left a rider might have collided with me. It’s the closest I could get and the thrill of being able to take these kinds of pictures was amazing to me. So much so that I didn’t want to leave. I stayed there for two laps and moved on.

And remember my buddy, Jamie Smith? Here he is passing out candy and Team Slipstream hats to the kids on the street that were watching the race:

From there it was time to make our way back to the finish line area. So I walked the route in the direction the riders were riding so I could capture more photos along the way such as these. (This must have been the lap following the feed station.)

This was the 9th lap and the break was still hanging out there

The peloton was still about 45 seconds behind:

It was inevitable that the peloton would catch the break. I figured with the slight uphill finish the attacks wouldn’t happen much before the 200 meter mark so I set up right under the 150m banner for one last round of photos. My prediction of JJ Haedo looked pretty good but alas it was not meant to be. He’d have to settle for a second place finish behind Greg Henderson.

This year’s TdG definitely belonged to High Road with three stage wins, multiple days in the yellow jersey, and the overall win (yellow jersey) in addition to Henderson leaving with the sprinter’s jersey. Not a bad showing at all!

Day 4: Stage 6, Brasstown Bald

The epic and deciding stage of the Tour de Georgia is always Brasstown Bald Mountain with its 14% average grade and a few sections reaching 25%.

We parked the car about a 1/4 mile from the entrance to the mountain. From there we walked to grab a shuttle to the “top”, or as far as the shuttle goes. From there you cannot drive to the summit, you have to walk.

There were so many people with bikes, all dressed in their respective club or team kits, preparing to try their legs on the ascent. Some had done it before, others might not have. Some handled the climb really well, others struggled to hang on. I wonder how many abandoned the climb part of the way through.

I had a great seat on the shuttle – the middle of the first row, so I had the best view of riders on the road. Some had great form and cadence. One in particular looked like he was about to fall over – he was pedaling very slowly and weaving from side to side. I wonder how I would have done myself. I think I might have been like the weaver.

After walking the booths, yet again, in the parking lot, I set up a chair in view of the jumbo traun to watch coverage of the race in the sun while Don and Joel ventured off to see the sites of the mountain and take some photos.

When they returned we ate a little lunch and then it was time to walk up to find where we wanted to be. Joel found a good area in the shade of a tree. We thought we’d continue to walk up to see if we could find a better spot and we chose an area near the last turn and in a position where we could also hear the announcers and see the finish.

On the walk to the summit Don said he had left his mark on the mountain. As it turns out there was a couple asking people where they were from. If you state hadn’t been written on the road then they wrote it there in chalk. They ended up counting fans from 26 states and two countries during their poll. That’s pretty cool!

And there were more drawings on the road. As we walked we were able to see them and some were really great:

Hopefully this gives you a good sense of the grade the riders faced:

And after approximately two hours we finally saw our race leaders:

Siutsou of High Road was able to attack with a 10 second gap on Trent Lowe to take the overall lead. Lowe put up a valiant effort despite Levi doing everything he could to shake the young Slipstream rider. But Lowe shouldn’t be too disappointed, he wore yellow and went home with the best young rider’s jersey.

We saw many faces in anguish as the riders approached the finish line. This was Rory Sutherland who finished 4. Very impressive!

Interestingly, our friend Joel, who stayed in the shade of the tree on a straight away before the turn that we were above said he heard a rider ask for a push, though it was a quiet request and he didn’t know how to react and not sure really what he said until he was by him. I had no idea that they made such requests. Though I suppose they do when you see this photo from Ken Conley:

Photo by Ken Conley

We didn’t take the shuttle down from the parking lot after the race. The line was exceptionally long and didn’t seem to be moving. So we joined many others and walked the entire way, a little over 3 miles to the bottom. It was a good thing we did because we didn’t see any shuttles for 1/3 of the walk and found out there had been an accident at the bottom involving a cyclist and a vehicle to prevent traffic from going back up the mountain. We know we made it to the bottom faster by walking than waiting for a spot on a shuttle.

During the walk we saw many people on their bikes flying down the road. They didn’t seem to be going too terribly fast but I know if I was on my bike going the speeds they were I would have been a bit nervous – I’m not a good descender and really need to work on that aspect of my cycling.

Day 3: Stage 5, Suwanee to Dahlonega

We had a late start from the house today so we didn’t manage to go into Cummings to see the riders pass on the route. Instead we drove straight to Dahlonega, which gave us ample time to grab some lunch in the quaint little town.

We set up about 50 meters from the finish to watch the riders come around the final turn and pour it on to the finish.

On our way to the camp site cabins for the night at Enota, we decided to travel the route that the peloton took to arrive in Dahlonega (going the opposite direction as part of it was on our way). It was amazingly beautiful and I cringed that the thought of the speeds they reached on the descents. To me they looked pretty technical but what do I know?

Day 2: Stage 4, Road Atlanta

I knew the track at Road Atlanta had a climb based on the youtube video of Jittery Joe’s practice on the course. However, the video didn’t show the extent of the grade. Now, I’m not one that can look at a hill and estimate the gradient. I can tell you it was steep. I can also tell you that there was no running start. You hit a slight climb and then a short flat and then you hit the climb.

I expected more spectators at the track. But we are on vacation. Many people I’m sure were at work. It did seem to fill in a bit more right before the start, or just after the start. Perhaps people just worked ½ day and then came to the race later.

We sat up on the hill where the nasty climb was. It was a good spot for taking pictures though I wasn’t close enough to really capture their faces.

Our friend decided to walk further up the track and found places where there were less spectators next to the S-turns so we moved to that location. I wish we had walked the track earlier so we could have a better sense of where we wanted to be for pictures and I think we’ll do that for the circuit race Sunday. At any rate, I was sitting on a corner where the riders leaned in for the turn, right in front of me and got these incredible shots.

Some of my photos above are just as good as this professional photo you’ll find on CyclingNews.

We didn’t stay for the podium festivities. We had to scoot out as we were in need of showers prior to the Braves’ game that evening. We’ll be around for the podium presentations at Dahlonega so I’ll see one then.

The Braves’ game was terrific. They beat the Marlins 6-4. It was Chipper Jones’ birthday, too. He is one of my husband’s favorite players and a really respectable guy. Perhaps that made it even more special.

Turner Field was incredible, and is probably one of the most hi-tech fields because it was recently built. I’ve never been to a major league baseball game before so I had nothing to compare it to. We will be going to a Red Sox game in July with my coworkers on an employee outing. Fenway is an older stadium and is special in its own right. However, I will be comparing it to Turner Field with it’s huge jumbo-trawn and LED banners all around the seating areas.

The Official Roadie

If you haven’t heard about the book Roadie, written by Jamie Smith, I highly recommend you pick up a copy at your local book store or order one on line through Jamie’s website.

I was reading Jamie’s blog before I left Maine and saw that he was going to be here in Atlanta for the race. I promptly contacted him to see if I could get him to sign my copy of his book as I would have it with me on the trip. He said yes!

I took the book to Road Atlanta hoping to track him down on the first day. I was lucky enough to find him soon after our arrival.

If all racers and cyclists are like Jamie then they are the nicest group of people you’d ever meet. He didn’t give me the brush off at all, seemed happy to sign the book for me and we chatted for a while about biking. Of course I couldn’t resist the urge to ask him about his prediction for the day, which was High Road. Sorry Jamie! (Slipstream took the stage.)

Atlanta Arrival

Whew! I finally have a moment to blog what a day! I’m exhausted!

Our day started at 3am, when I woke just before the alarm was set to go off. 5 ½ hours of sleep would have to be adequate to get me through the day.

The transportation van arrived at the house 10 minutes early, at 4:20am so we departed soon after it arrived. We were in the air a bit before 7am and we arrived in Atlanta earlier than expected after a connection through Baltimore.

The only snafu we encountered was when the airline could not locate the lobster we checked as baggage to bring to our hosts for dinner. Eventually they found it but it meant we had to turn around after leaving the airport to go back for it. But that’s better than the alternative – no lobster and figuring out what we were going to do for dinner.

Lunch consisted of some southern BBQ food in this great little hole-in-the-wall in Atlanta called Harold’s. It’s a local favorite and the food was inexpensive and delicious. I had beef, coleslaw and Brunswick stew. The stew was excellent! I’ve heard they make that best and I’d never had it before. Now that I have had the best it’s going to be tough if I ever order it again. Luckily this one was not made with ocra, as some are.

We stopped off at Trader Joe’s for some staples and then landed at Joel’s a bit before 3pm, 12 hours after we woke. Needless to say it’s been a long day.

The weather here is spectacular. They are about 2 months ahead of us in the blooming of flowers and the temperatures. Even though the weather is starting to turn nice in Maine it’s nothing like this. It’s really lovely to feel the warmth of 80-degrees and see fully-leafed out trees, with azaleas and wisteria ablaze with color. I even walked on grass with bare feet – what a treat!! I’m not sure I’m going to want to return to the bare trees and cooler temps in Maine on Tuesday.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day. The Road Atlanta Team Time Trial stage starts at 1pm and we’ll be there late morning. Then it’s off to a Braves’ Game in the evening. The Braves was the team my husband grew up watching and he hasn’t been to a game in forever. His friend got us great tickets for essentially behind home plate. We surprised him by telling him tonight and he couldn’t believe it. It will be an excellent, albeit long and tiresome day.

I hope to have time to blog tomorrow but it might be a stretch. I’ll do my best! For now, it’s time for some much needed sleep.

The Day after Tomorrow

No, the world not going to end as in the movie by the same title. No, I mean the day after tomorrow we leave for Atlanta. I skipped the Monday Night Ride because I didn’t want tomorrow night to be very stressful. There was still stuff to do tonight in preparation of our departure. However, I was at the shop when the large number of riders rolled out and I longed to go with them.

I’ll be back in the group rides soon enough. But let’s turn our attention to the TdG.

Today was not an exciting stage but the outcome was joyous. We are tickled pink for Dominguez for his win today.

I would be following the Tour regardless of our upcoming travel plans. However, knowing that we are going to be there we need to make sure we know what has happened with the race thus far before we arrive. The hardest part will be traveling on Wednesday and not able to follow the race the way we’d like.

The biggest reason for going to Atlanta and timing it the way we did is to see the Road Atlanta stage on Thursday. The Tour de Georgia website has videos to view and this is a good one of what we can expect Thursday when Jittery Joe’s was able to run a practice session on the course.

Then there is the Brasstown Bald Stage on Saturday. I’ve heard so much about it and since we were going to “be in the area” then it made sense to make this stage if possible. Luckily we made arrangements to stay on the mountain in cabins the night before. This is video from last year’s stage up the mountain.

In three days, we’ll be amongst the festivities.

First Long Ride of the Season

I am registered for an 18+ mile time trial from Freeport on May 4th. I had to ride a time trial without previewing the route. Now, most of these roads I am mildly familiar with as I have ridden on them before. However, I wanted to refresh my memory with the nuances of the route and to see any damage to the roads that might have occurred this winter. With the upcoming trip I knew that this weekend would be my only shot and I’ve reserved Sunday for packing and cleaning to today was the day. Besides, the weather forecast looked conducive to a nice long ride.

I was joined by a couple club members on the trip. Though none of them are actually participating in the time trial they were up for the 55-mile ride.

(Don’t blame Julie for the phone. She was able to steal away for several hours and was just checking in at home.)

I felt like a pack mule at one point as I had come to strip off my vest, arm warmers, leg warmers and stuffed them in my back pockets amongst the cell phone, camera, Cliff Bar, and tissues. But this is the time of year where the temperatures can vary, depending on where you are, what route you take and how close to the ocean for the sea breeze effect.

(This stop was another request from me so I could take off my leg warmers.)

The nice thing about a relatively warm day is I’m able to wear my half fingered gloves with padding. My full fingered gloves are not padded. Furthermore, it’s only taken this one ride today to bring my tan circles back to life on the hands. You know the ones, they look like bruises from the sun tanning your hands through the holes in the gloves. It’s like the shorts line – it’s a badge of honor and I love when people ask “what I do” to because the tan lines are so intriguing. I always proudly tell them I’m a cyclist and it’s from wearing gloves.

That relaxed tired feeling is back, too, after a long ride. I should have a nap but it’s too late. I’ll fight through it and just make it an early bedtime. I remember when I started riding, I’d go ride 20-30 miles, sometimes more, and I’d be useless for the remainder of the day. I’d lay on the sofa all afternoon, often napping. It took me a long time to recover. I’m getting better at that.

I was reminded of that last night when I went to hear Mark McCormack speak at a local bike shop. (Thanks to Gorham Bike and Ski for hosting it!) He said when you are a pro-racer you race, then you recover. You recover by doing nothing. “If you are standing you should sit; if you are sitting you should lay down.” (I’ve heard this adage before.) Words of wisdom. Hmm, I’m sitting. I should lay down. Ahhh, that’s better.

It was a good day on the bike. A long ride that was far over due. Tomorrow will be another day that will be related to cycling: packing for the Tour de Georgia! (4 days to go!)

A Strong Showing

We had a pretty strong showing for the B-group ride tonight – 13 riders. I thought it might be good to have the B-ride leave at 5:30 to allow more riders to be able to join us. The A-group’s 5pm start can be a bit tough for some of us working class to make.

The comments were positive and I hope this is the first of many larger B-group rides. Next week we’ll leave with the A-group, which will move to 5:30 staring next week. I won’t be able to make that one as I’ll be in Atlanta. Yippee!! Though I will truly miss my Thursday night ride.

I had to smile during the ride when one of the riders, now a friend, pointed out that last year I didn’t consider even riding with the Thursday Night Ride because they were too fast, and I was too slow. But I started riding it late in the year last year and got hooked on the pace. Now here I am showing up every Thursday night I can muster.

I can’t keep up with the faster riders forever, but the longer I can keep up the better. It’s always fun to see how long I can hang. I can usually count on getting dropped at a certain location and I don’t ever see that changing, but I’m going to try to hang on longer and longer.

6 days and counting….