Glad you made it to the race, Kim. I was there too and I agree, it was awesome! I went up to the mountains Fri morning. Our home base was in a tiny town called Suches. We hopped on our bikes and planned to ride the four climbs that were part of that days stage (Woody Gap, Neel's Gap, Wolfpen Gap, back to Woody Gap). We were going to watch them go by on the top of Woody Gap and then ride the reverse route back to Wolfpen and hope to get there before they did so we could see them a second time. Well, I had a little mishap on the Neel's climb that slowed us up and changed the plans. During the climb, my chain fell off. Man, you lose momentum so quickly under those circumstances. I got a foot clipped out but not in time to keep myself from falling over. I was so embarrassed to fall like that in front of all the cyclists around me that I rushed to put the chain back on and hopped back on the bike. Bad move... I maybe made it 20ft up the road and the chain dropped again. Since I hadn't gained any speed yet, I fell over immediately, completely clipped in. Ouch!! The bike was ok but I scraped up my knee and elbow, some nice bruises appeared later. This time, I decided to examine the bike to try to understand why I was dropping the chain. I discovered a bad link in the chain and knew I had to remove it before I would be able to ride any further. I don't carry a chain tool because my BF has one. But, guess what?? I told him it was okay to ride ahead of me as long as he waited at the top. There were hundreds of cyclists riding around there and I got plenty of offers of help but no one had a chain tool. I saw some people I knew and they said they would try to find my BF and send him back down the mountain to help out. He arrived just after I finally found a couple of guys who could help me. They popped the bad link out and I was back on the road. We made it to the top of Neel's and continued on to Wolfpen in time to get hit with the thunderstorm and hail that passed through the area. At that point, we decided we would just stop at the top of Wolfpen to watch the race. I was wet and cold but it was all worth it. I got a spot on the side of the road with my toes on the KOM finish line. I could literally have reached out and touched the riders as they went by if I had wanted to. It was so cool!!

We had planned to ride our bikes from Suches over to the stage finish on Brasstown Bald on Sat. but it was soooo cold and windy that we wimped out and drove over. The crowds were immense, lots of people on their bikes and cars lining the roads for several miles on either side of the turn up to Brasstown Bald. We had thought about walking up to the top or at least to the spot that they call 'The Wall' because of its steepness but decided we might see better if we were away from the crowds. We weren't disappointed. We were able to get right up to the edge of the road and the riders passed within a few feet of us. Danielson and Leipheimer attacked just after they passed us and we could see Lance and Landis trying to stay with them. Then as some of the other riders came along, we could see the pain in their faces as they struggled up the climb. So exciting!

I think it was a good thing that Lance didn't win this year. That allowed some other riders to be in the spotlight. I'm hoping that people realize that there are a lot of other great riders out there and that they still will come out to watch in future years. I know I will!