The Tour Duh Georgia

It's pretty cool that even in a state like Georgia that they can put together a cycling race that attracts Pro-tour teams. I am heading out today to watch the Tour climb over Burnt Mountain. My parents live on Burnt mountain and the tour is going right past their driveway...They feel sooooEuro. I'm going up the road from their driveway a little bit to watch the race pass the KOM. No sense sitting on the downhill side...the view will be really short. Although the downhill is 18-20% and there is one corner that could cause some problems...not to mention a few nasty potholes. Good luck on the descent racers. After they pass the KOM i'm heading to Dahlonega to watch the finish. Should be fun. I'll take a few pics.

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY....WE'VE TURNED THE BOTTOM OF THE OMNI INTO A GIANT 6 FOOT DEEP...

MUD PIT!!!!

Is there a point where it would make sense to just lose the entry fee and skip a race because it will probably cost you more to repair the bike than the entry fee??? So far this year i have done two big rides and both have taken their toll on the bikes that i decided to ride. The First was De Ronde, things don't seem as smooth as they were before, but i think i can fix most of them...maybe a new chain is needed. The second was the Cohutta 65 i did this past Saturday. (The 65 is the Big Sissy version of the 100) It was a rough 6 hour slog through the mud. Driving up to the race Saturday at 4:30am it was raining pretty steady, It had rained most the night. When the race started the entire course had about 2cm of squishy mud on everything. About half of this race is single track and the other is fire road, i thought the fire roads wouldn't be that bad, but it turned out the fireroads turned into quicksand or something similar. To add to the slick fun, i learned about 4 miles into the race that my middle chainring needed to be replaced because with just a little bit of mud and slop, it started sucking. 45 miles of switching from the big to granny until, with 12 miles left, it started sucking in all gears. I stopped and cleaned as much mud as i could off, put some lube on the chain and it worked until i got to the finish. 6:03 or something like that. Here are some pics of my pretty bike...i'm thinking i will tear it down and make sure everything is okay.

Finished 21st....i think

I'm back and sleepy

Here are a few picks.

Stijn Devolder Won...in case you missed it.

Mark and I watched the race come up the Nokerberg before heading to Meerbeke for the finish. We did a little posing before the race came through.