. . . Well, as we talked about earlier in the week, I ditched work to ride in the mtns and watch Stage 4 from Dalton to Dahlonega. I had planned this to be my last exhaustion workout prior to Gulf Coast on 5/7. So, planned to ride from Dahlonega to the top of Woody Gap, repeat the climb until the race came by the first time, do another couple climbs in the approx 1hr until they came back, then ride back to Dahlonega and home. Didn’t quite turn out that way.
Ride out and up the first time was fine. ~75-80degrees, sunny. Man, felt like I was at Kona with all the bike porn and people showing off climbing up and down the hills. Cars everywhere, riders everywhere, $5k bikes everywhere. Me and my old Klein Quantum making our way through it all.
Made it to the top of Woody Gap and it was like a huge party! Place was jammed, race announcer at the top giving uninformed updates over the PA, the “Creed Nation” RV there with music hopping and keg tapped. Both sides of the road jammed all the way down the climb. Just HUGE as Tom D would say.
So, found a place on the hillside to hang my bike on a tree (it was that steep), found a rock to sit on, and sat down to eat my Subway before doing a couple climb repeats. Life is good, fun people watching, some guy from a bike rental shop going up and down towing a BOB trailer with a billboard for his shop on it, tooting his air horn. Some guy comes up pushing his 5yr old on a kid mtn bike, getting huge cheers from the crowd. Kid was eating it up, must have been going 100+rpm with his little legs, just working it! Riders everywhere, showing off the legs. One woman in particular right across the road, wearing nothing but PI shorts, and a sports bra, enjoying the benefits of not gaining weight over the winter, she’s ripped.
All is well, but then th sky gets grey, then charcoal, then BLACK! Wind picks up and starts whipping. Storm rolls over the ridge. Starts to sprinkle. I packed a Gore Tex jacket, so pulled it out and put it on, hood up. Starts to rain. Starts to freakin’ come down. Can’t see across the road. People yelling, hooting, dealing with it pretty well, 'cause what else are you going to do. Nothing on this mtn road. Then, not kidding, rain turns to hail like that. Bam! Temperature drops 15 degrees in a minute, and hail is coming down. I put my helmet on 'cause my head was getting bashed. I’m crouched down on the hillside, and everyone is just sort of moaning about. I look to the road and the ripped woman in the sports bra is crouched down, holding some dude’s canvas chair over her head, just getting pelted with the hail.
Hail lasts about 5 min, which is a pretty long time. Hail stops, turns to rain, temp stays cold. There was about 1/2inch of hail accumulation on the ground, including the road. I looked at my watch and thought, “Man, no way would I ride down the mtn with this stuff on the ground”. I figured they’d stop the race or something until the rain could wash that shit off the road at least, it looked like snow on the road. In about 15 min the road was clear of hail because the rain had washed it all into the ditches, but it was still coming down. Everyone is wet, and freezing. Long story short, after the race came by, I tried to ride down the mtn to climb back up to warm up, but only got about 1mi down and had to stop. I was shivering so much I couldn’t stop my arms shaking and had about zero confidence I could control the bike at any speed. Constant speed wobbles from the shivering.
Some nice folks let me hop in the back of their SUV and warm up 'til the race came by again, and the news from that is that I think Lance is a fan of the Hottie Thread.
The nice folks included an attractive woman, long flowing blonde hair, shorts with nice legs. When the race came by the second time, there was a CSC and Discovery guy off the front. Chase group of about 8 riders was no more than 10 seconds behind, and Lance and Floyd were in that chase. We were about 150 yards downhill from a turn, along a straightaway, so you could see the riders make the turn, then come straight towards you. The woman was standing by the side of the SUV, right on the side of the road. As Lance’s group came down, I picked out Lance, riding in 4th position behind the Discovery guys. As he’s coming towards us, the next turn just past us is a right turn, but Lance’s head swivels left, towards where we’re standing. His head stays locked on the pretty lady as they swing by, and only looks back up the road after they’ve passed us. I guess after 5hrs in hail and rain on the bike I’d be happy for some scenery as well!
Made it back to town, warmed up on the ride and generally considered the day legendary. That’s the only time I’ve been outside in a hail storm of that magnitude and just rode it out. It was really cool to see the crowds though. At the KOM line at the top of Woody Gap it looked just like the Ventoux in last years tour. Fans crowding the riders as they came over the top, just a small gap through the crowd. Everyone yelling, riders struggling, just really, really, cool. I hope this fan support stays after Lance goes, because this race is a lot closer than France.
T