Tour de Georgia

As most of people who frequent this blog realize, I am not a traditional sports fan. Of course I love the big three football, basketball, and baseball. But I am also a fan of other fringe sports like hockey, soccer and cycling. This week the Tour de Georgia is taking place all around the state with 7 stages that will cover 590 miles. It is like a traveling festival. This race has become one of the premier cycling events in the U.S. and will have teams that are international teams as well as a few local teams. The international teams see this race as a good warm-up for the big European classics that occur in the spring and summer, including the Tour de France, which starts on July 5th. Past winners of this race include Floyd Landis, Tom Danielson, and Lance Armstrong.

The first stage of the race was 70.4 miles and it went from Tybee Island to Savannah. I know people are saying that Tybee Island only about 15 miles from Savannah which is true but for this stage, the riders went through Savannah and came back around to finish downtown. The next stage went from Statesboro to Augusta. This stage was 116.9 miles long and the course covered some rolling hills. The third stage started on Wednesday in Washington and ended in Gainesville 108.2 miles later. This stage started to get more in the mountains and the elevations really jumped from the first two stages. On Thursday, the riders were at Road Atlanta in Braselton for the team time trial. For those of you who aren’t familiar with cycling, the time trails are usually a lot shorter in distance and the riders go all out for the time they are one the course. The team time trail has every member of a team working together to get to the finish as fast as possible. It is a true test of teamwork. Having been to Road Atlanta, I know that is one hell of a hilly course and I am sure the riders were pushed to their limits with the steep hills and descents. The riders did 4 laps of the 2.5-mile racetrack and the winning time was 19.36 and the Slipstream Chipotle team posted that time.

Today is stage 5 and will start in Suwanee and will end 133.4 miles later in Dahlonega. This is going to be a extremely tough stage for the riders as they will be hitting the mountains and climbing to mountains that are over 3,000ft, Burnt Mt and Woody Gap. Both of these climbs are considered category 3 climbs. But the signature stage of the race is on Saturday. The riders will go from Blairsville and end 88.4 miles later on Brasstown Bald. This is a brutal climb to the finish and is the highest point during the race finishing at 4,600 feet. This is considered a HC Category climb, which means it is beyond category. That climb is tough to make in a car, can you imagine having to do it on a bike! It rivals the biggest climbs in the Tour de France including the L’Alpe-D’Huez. That stage is always very exciting and the fans line the entire mountain to cheer on the riders. After that grueling finish, the next stage is a circuit race through the city of Atlanta that starts and finishes at Centennial Park. They do 10 laps of the 6.3-mile course. This stage goes very fast and is really exciting. If you can, get out and see some of the race, it is quite a site to see the peloton fly by.

There has been some recent changes to teams and riders since the end of last season. The biggest being the Discovery team being disbanded. But most of the riders from that team have found new teams and are racing in the Tour de Georgia. Riders like George Hincapie (Team High Road), Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and Tom Danielson (Slipstream Chipotle) all used to ride for Team Discovery and are now leading their new teams. Also, the former director of Team Discovery, Johan Bruyneel, is now the leading the Astana team. There are a lot of big name cyclists in the race and this is the reason why the Tour de Georgia is becoming known as the premier race in the states.

Go check it out!