The densest weekend of the year is a few weeks past, and somehow the density didn’t fall off enough for me to comment on it. Oops! Tour de Georgia was great as always. We awoke early to drive from Atlanta to the start of my Circle the Bald ride. The girls dropped me off then, luckily not leaving right away because I almost forgot my gloves, then headed out to get a bite to eat and find us a spot on Brasstown Bald.
The ride was great! A few drops of rain here and there, enough to make me a little cautious going down hills, but not enough to make a real mess of the day. Owl Creek Road was probably the steepest hill I’ve attempted to climb since leaving the DC area in 2000, and I climbed it twice because once I finished with the group ride, I repeated the route to find the car and go join Andrea and Elizabeth on the Bald.
There was a strange riding incident climbing Owl Creek Road. From maybe a hundred meters in front of me, I heard a strange popping noise, and saw a guy get off and start walking his bike back down the climb. I saw him leaning down and picking things up off the road. As I passed him, I realized they were cogs — his entire cogset had exploded all over the road!
We didn’t take so many pictures of the ride this year, because I wanted to experience it first-hand rather than from behind a camera. That was a good choice because I really enjoyed watching Floyd Landis and Tom Danielson climb Brasstown. Andrea picked one of the steepest sections where we could watch the pros climb towards us for several hundred meters. Those guys are strong! All but the most fit recreational cyclists had to stop and walk at our little section of the climb, but many of the pros glided up like it was no big deal. Our spot was about 3 miles up the climb from the road, which was a tough walk up for me after the ride I’d done just before.
Time goes by very quickly at an event like that, so though I waited for close to four hours for the peloton and Andrea and Elizabeth waited even longer than that, it was 4:30 before we knew it and we were walking back down to the car to head home.
This year, instead of stopping by the road for some fast food on the way, we figured we’d take a break in Athens and have a nice leisurely dinner. We ate outside at a nice little bistro, then walked around a bit and had some ice cream. As sometimes happens after a long day like that, I ate everything in sight.
Another great tour, if you haven’t gone I recommend it, and we’ll plan to be heading back next year!