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if your looking for tour de france news, look no further. the tdf blog is up to date and has a good swath of news from other locations. i’ve been really disappointed with the editorial coverage from cycling news and velo news. lackluster would be a kind word to explain their coverage. bloggers are really coming of age in cycling.

well lance lit it up today and took a huge chunk of time out of his rivals in todays stage 12. tomorrow is looking to be an amazingly hard stage. with 6 category climbs and one beyond category it’s definitely going to separate the men from boys. today’s stage really engrossed me and brought me back into the mood. up until today the stages were good, but not as enthralling as years past. today however, it was cycling at it’s best.

amy and i found a new trail to ride. it isn’t exactly new, but it’s new to us. it’s called waterfall glen and it circles around argonne national laboratory in suburban chicago. it’s a 30 minute drive from our house but it’s well worth the drive as the scenery here is top notch. the path is crushed limestone and runs about 9.8 miles in length according to my bike computer. there are several semi technical downhills which you can really freak you when you first see them. the trail is pretty open and isn’t highly technical like the john muir trails but it was still a lot of fun to cruse through and more enjoyable then some of the sections of the prairie path. don’t get me wrong, i like the prairie path (especially the long 50 mile loop) but some of the straight sections next to the train tracks are pretty boring and hot as hell when the sun is overhead. that limestone starts to cook you from the bottom while the sun is cooking from the top. anyhow, back to the new trail … it has some great twists and turns and the scenery is really cool. from grasslands, marshes, trees, to waterfalls this path has it all. you can also go off the limestone path for some hiking if you want, but we didn’t venture there today. i think we’ll give it a try again next weekend if the weather holds up. now that we know what to expect i can really try to hit some of those hills with a bit more snap … no holding back this time.

we didn’t attempt to catch the riders early in the stage today, instead we just hung out at the finish line. after checking out the expo in the parking lot near the finish we grabbed a spot on a small downhill at the end of the 4 lap, 4 mile, figure eight finishing section. our spot was opposite the finish line so we had time to move over to “attempt” to watch the final sprint if we wanted. once the riders entered the figure eight finishing section the crowd went kind of crazy. they were running back and forth to the opposite side of the track to catch the riders at different points. i think they spent more time running and trying to find a spot then actually watching the race. we didn’t feel like jockeying for spots in the hopes we could get some shots, instead we wanted to actually enjoy the race.

the riders were flying by at a very fast pace so a few of the pictures that we took came out blurry, but it was a lot of fun just watching. during the laps i hard 2 wheel blowouts on the downhill turn just to the right of us. we didn’t see the outcome but we did see a few riders trailing pretty far behind the main peloton. i can’t imagine what it must be like to have a blowout in the final kilometers of the final stage when your tired, in pain, and weak from riding in the heat all day. keeping control of my bike is about all i could hope for at that point.

after the four laps we moved over to the finish in an attempt to see something but the crowds were really thick. the most we could see was the peloton off in the distance riding down the slight hill and beginning the slight uphill finishing accent. in case you didn’t already know, gord fraser, a domestic rider on the health net team, won the stage race beating out mario cipollini (the european sprinting sensation) for the win. it was insane seeing how fast they were sprinting into the finish … i can only describe it as breathtaking.

it was a ton of fun experiencing the stage finish and i’d do it again in a second. i’m definitely going to try to make it again next year, perhaps for the entire week this time. i hope amy can catch a few stages next time.

if your interested you can check out a few pictures from tour de georgia stage 7. there are pictures mixed in there from myself, brian, and chuck. for more stage 7 information check out the cycling news coverage.

during the previous days scouting of stage 6 we stopped at brasstown bald mountain in hopes of scouting for a prime position for stage 6. at the bottom of the mountain we were greeted to a closed road and a police officer that told us they were planning on shutting the mountain down early the following morning and that they were only allowing 80-100 cars to the top at 8:00 am before they would close the mountain to walkers and shuttle buses. learning this tidbit we immediately grabbed a hotel in hiawassee (the closest town) and arrived at the mountain around 7:30 am to get in line in hopes of making it up with our car. we had heard that the decent could be nasty on a cars brakes and that someone had problems descending the previous day but we didn’t care, it was in fact a rental rental car … hhehhehe. looking at the hill you could easily see why, it was by far one of the steepest roads i have ever seen. at points the climb hits 23% gradient, it’s no wonder the hill was rated as a hc (hors categorie) climb which meant that it was a beyond category climb.

we hit the top around 8:30 am, took a shuttle up the rest of the way, and then scoped out a great spot. as you can see from the pictures we got an amazing spot with a great view of the surrounding mountains. our spot was a pivotal switchback on the final leg before the finish line. not only was it likely the steepest point on the mountain but it was at the very end of the climb which meant we were certain to see some action.

at around 2:20 you could hear the mountain near us start to crank up the volume as motorcycles and cars were making their way past, the riders close in tow. about 10 minutes later we saw a car with sherryl crow riding copilot climb past us at which point i was expecting to see lance close behind. needless to say we were shocked and ecstatic at the same time to see someone else giving lance and jens a run for their money up the climb. cesar grajales calle, a georgian local and a rider for the jittery joes team, was riding at an impressive cadence for this late in the climb. i was still able to take a few photos though and they turned out decent. about 20 seconds later lance and jens rounded the corner with looks of pain and surprise on their faces. i don’t think they were expecting this steep of a climb (papers were reporting that lance hadn’t scouted this stage) and i certainly think they were expecting to see cesar around the corner within their sight. i managed to snap a few shots of lance and jens as well, this uphill was a lot friendlier on my camera then the day before as you can see by the clarity of the pictures.

cesar ended up winning the stage but that last bit of the climb almost pushed him over the edge as he only won by a margin of 17 seconds. after watching the stage on oln it was easy to see that he was losing time and could have lost the win had lance and jens had another kilometer to work their magic. lance also commented in an interview that he though chris horner was the man to beat today. chris did take 4th but cesar was the man of the afternoon.

if your interested you can check out a few pictures from tour de georgia stage 6. there are pictures mixed in there from myself, brian, and chuck. for more stage 6 information check out the cycling news coverage.

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.

a few friends and i have decided to take a trip to watch a few stages of the tour de georgia. we’re planning on catching the 5th - 7th stages (friday april 23rd - sunday april 25th). we’ve already book the flights and are planning out the routes, hotels, and the other miscellaneous things. worst case we’ll sleep in the car … it’s going to be great, i’ve always wanted to attend a stage race. this should be a nice warmup to seeing the tour de france someday. my real goal for this race is to see lance armstrong race once before he retires. this is one of the races that postal is planning on racing before this years tour. it looks to be an exciting race bringing together a lot of foreign and domestic squads. look for updates soon!