2007 Tour of Georgia Trip April 18 2007 Journal

Today we were supposed to be stopping along our ride from Bristol to Chattanooga to ride on the Tennessee side of the Cherahola Skyway. A couple of things changed our mind.

First, on the drive from Front Royal to Bristol last night, I thought it was a good idea to buy some spicy peanuts to eat in the car. Let me tell you, that was a bad idea. As we reached the town at the base on the road, my stomach was churning badly. Since we didn't know much about this road, we decided to drive up a bit and look for a reasonable place to start riding from since we needed to get to Chattanooga to see the race finish. The entire drive, I thought I was going to have an embarrassing accident .. luckily I didn't (LoL).

Second, As we drove up the road, we noticed it was quite desolate and there seemed to be quite a few hunters around. All of them were dressed in camouflage and carrying rifles. When we got near the top, we noticed there seemed to be caps of hunters around. All in all this was starting to look a little bit too much like Deliverance country for two guys with Massachusetts plates on their car to be riding bikes in spandex.

As a result, the desolate country and my stomach not being right, we decided to travel on the Chattanooga early and get a ride in around there. Luckily I had scouted enough of the options to know that we could get some good riding in around Signal Mountain, so that is where we headed after arriving.

Here are some pictures from Stage 3 of the Tour de Georgia:

As it turns out, our hotel selection in Chattanooga couldn't have been better. We were literally a few blocks away from the stage three finishing area. Here is the view of the finish from parking garage at our hotel in Chattanooga

The crowds were pretty light so there was easy access to almost everywhere around the finish. Of course there was a Jumbotron where we could watch the race!

Doug at the 100 m post … we seem to end up there at these races

There was a pretty good breakway that finished several minutes before the main field. Janez Brajkovic from Discovery won and after the race, he came back by us heading to the team busses.

Levi Leipheimer after the race.

The peloton finally came in almost 30 minutes after the breakaway finished. Seems that with both Discovery and CSC having leaders in the break, there was no impetuous to chase anything down. essentially, the race was over with the exception of those who made the break.

Big George and Tommy Danielson after the race.

The team Discovery Car leaving the parking area

The podium …

After the podium ceremony on the way to the post race interviews and the scene around the finish line.

Brajkovic from Team Discovery … notice his tooth pick thin legs …. How can he climb so well?? I guess when you weigh 100 punds, then you don't need much muscle.