John and I went to watch Stage 5 of the Tour de George. This stage had a hill top finish up Brasstown Bald. We took road bikes and parked about 10 miles from the finish and biked in. The last 2-3 miles was a steep climb where the pro cyclists would be going later in the day. I was on my daughter-in-law’s bike which had a triple crankshaft but since John only had a double I decided to do the climb in the middle chairing. I passed about 50 other bikers on the way up. There was one section that was very steep and I had second thoughts about trying to keep in the middle chainring, but I decided to grind it out. I noticed that most all of the other cyclists were now walking their bikes, but my pride would not let me stop. I finally made it past that part and the grade returned to simply “steep”.

Up near the top was a level area filled with big crowds and an expo. The actual finish was up another 1,000 feet climb but they would not let us ride bikes up there. One offical said it was too steep except for the pro cyclists, but I knew I could climb it. Nevertheless we had to walk up a ways where we sat and waited for the cyclists to arrive. Here is a photo of the stage winner, Levi Leiphimer.

Click here for more cycling pictures. It was amazing to watch the pro cyclists climb this steep section. After the entire field came up we walked back down to get our bikes and waited for permission to head back down the hill. I kept the decent speed down since I was not on a a bike I trusted completely. As we were about half way down there were several emergency vehicles which we had to walk our bikes past. We could see they were administering CPR to a cyclist laying on the ground. Someone said the person was coming down too fast and it was a terrible crash. I was glad I was careful! After the steep decent we raced back to the cars and then a two hour drive back to Atlanta.

Categories: Cycling, Photography, Vacation
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