I'm back from Georgia. I went on a little four day mini training camp to the North Georgia mountains with Scott and Dave. We got in four days of good riding while taking in a bit of the Tour de Georgia.

We left Galena early Wednesday morning for the 9 hour drive to Helen, Georgia.














After we arrived in Helen and checked in to our hotel, we decided we had time to get in an hour or so on the bikes before heading to dinner. We found a nice rolling road just outside Helen that was perfect for working out the kinks from the long drive.



















We hit a few of the big climbs on Thursday. We got in 7000+ feet of climbing, riding over Hogs Pen Gap, Brasstown Bald and Unicoi Gap.

Over Hogs Pen and on to Brasstown...













Brasstown Bald
































After the ride on Thursday, we headed over to Road Atlanta to catch the TTT.

On Friday we did 6500 feet of climbing...Neel's Gap, Wolfs Pen and Woodys Gap (twice, once from each side). Sat at the top of Woodys and watched the race go by. The biggest surprise was seeing Tyler Hamilton ride through 20 minutes behind the field. He was smiling at everyone as he passed.

Dave going over Neels Gap...

The peleton goes over Woodys Gap...

On Saturday, TK was driving down from Chattanooga to meet us for some riding before we made our way to watch the race go up Brasstown Bald. The plan was to ride up Hogs Pen, over Unicoi and then up Brasstown. After two days of big hills, my legs were feeling pretty toasty. After the four of us rode up Hogs Pen, Dave and I decided to turn around and head back toward Brasstown while Scott and TK kept going toward Unicoi Gap. On the way to Brasstown, Dave and I stopped at the car, which was parked about a mile below the start of the Brasstown climb, to grab a back pack to carry up Brasstown. We rode up to just below the 2KM sign and found a good spot to watch the race go by. I decided to ride on to the top of the climb while Dave rested at our viewing spot. Once at the top, I grabbed a double espresso at the Rock Racing booth and watched the race go over Hogs Pen on the big Jumbo Tron TV. I rolled back down to where Dave was sitting to wait for Scott and TK to make their way up the climb. When Scott and TK showed up, I decided to ride back to the top one more time with Scott and then roll back down to wait for the race.