after much deliberation the week and days before the race we finally decided to hang out near the top of woody gap during this stage. it was a category 3 climb that the riders passed through twice during the race. we arrived at the top woody gap around noon and the riders started their first pass around 1:05 pm with a small break in the lead and the main peloton about 5 minutes back. the second lap through jason mccartney of health net was leading the main peloton which was had split into several smaller groups during the days climbs. from our position the peloton was less than 1 minute back of the leader with lance armstrong and jens voigt leading the attack up the final kilometer of the hill in an attempt to reel jason mccartney back in. they were to little to late as he took the win with 53 seconds to spare.


the climb up woody gap wasn’t as impressive we had hoped but we were able to see the riders twice. later that evening we rode through neel’s gap in our car. i think it would have been much more exciting to watch them traverse that hill and then make a run for the finish line to catch the finishing moments. all in all though it was a relaxing day with beautiful weather in the mid 80’s and not too humid.


if your interested you can check out a few pictures from tour de georgia stage 5. there are pictures mixed in there from myself, brian, and chuck. for more stage 5 information check out the cycling news coverage.