div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: center”a href=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RimGK3mXcNI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/htZ_K0r6tCM/s1600-h/IMGP0776.JPG”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_” alt=”" src=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RimGK3mXcNI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/htZ_K0r6tCM/s160/IMGP0776.JPG” border=”0″ //a /divbr /div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: center”a href=”http://bp2.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RimGLHmXcOI/AAAAAAAAAbY/GZm-gk6Jk0s/s1600-h/IMGP0781.JPG”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_” alt=”" src=”http://bp2.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RimGLHmXcOI/AAAAAAAAAbY/GZm-gk6Jk0s/s160/IMGP0781.JPG” border=”0″ //a /divbr /Amazing day. We started early and did some serious climbing. Started out very cold and I thought I was going to be miserable. I hate the cold. I’ll take 105 degree’s anyday. We did some pretty tough climbs and finished with the famous Brasstown Bald climb. Something like 25% or something like that and it goes on for miles. It’s tougher than I thought it would be. I got to a certain point and I could barely turn the pedals over. This is the kind of climb that makes some pretty fit people have to get off their bike and walk…. serious stuff. I was happy just to stay on the bike and keep rolling.br /You should see the pro’s go up this thing. They make it look so easy.br /In the pics… we got to hang out at the top of the mountain and had a great view of the finish. The guy in the pic with me is Phil Liggett. He is a very worldwide famous cycling announcer. He is absolutely amazing. He makes watching a race far more entertaining than when anyone else announcing. His love for the sport is so apparent and he is one of the greatest things to ever happen to cycling. I have always wanted to meet him and he couldn’t have been any nicer. I like that he doesn’t set his beer down for a pic, my kind of guy. He was being interupted constantly by people wanting autographs and pics and I could hear him mumbling something about just wanting to get drunk. I love this guy.br /br /Great day. We get to do some more mountain climbs tomorrow. This is a great way to vacation. What a beautiful place.div style=’clear:both; text-align:CENTER’a href=’http://picasa.google.com/blogger/’ target=’ext’img src=’http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif’ alt=’Posted by Picasa’ style=’border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;’ align=’middle’ border=’0′ //a/div

Amazing day. We started early and did some serious climbing. Started out very cold and I thought I was going to be miserable. I hate the cold. I’ll take 105 degree’s anyday. We did some pretty tough climbs and finished with the famous Brasstown Bald climb. Something like 25% or something like that and it goes on for miles. It’s tougher than I thought it would be. I got to a certain point and I could barely turn the pedals over. This is the kind of climb that makes some pretty fit people have to get off their bike and walk…. serious stuff. I was happy just to stay on the bike and keep rolling.
You should see the pro’s go up this thing. They make it look so easy.
In the pics… we got to hang out at the top of the mountain and had a great view of the finish. The guy in the pic with me is Phil Liggett. He is a very worldwide famous cycling announcer. He is absolutely amazing. He makes watching a race far more entertaining than when anyone else announcing. His love for the sport is so apparent and he is one of the greatest things to ever happen to cycling. I have always wanted to meet him and he couldn’t have been any nicer. I like that he doesn’t set his beer down for a pic, my kind of guy. He was being interupted constantly by people wanting autographs and pics and I could hear him mumbling something about just wanting to get drunk. I love this guy.

Great day. We get to do some more mountain climbs tomorrow. This is a great way to vacation. What a beautiful place.

What a great day. We had our first epic ride in the mountains. So different from riding a bike in Austin. You can get into a climb and continue to climb for 7-8 miles. Incredible. In Austin, our climbs are maybe half a mile at best. This is a real treat.br /We rode to the top of a mountain peak along the Appalachian trail. I say that as if I know what the Appalachian trail is… I really don’t, but I know it was a big enough deal that the federal government made a bunch of wooden signs so the elderly would pull over and block traffic.br /I guess this was a trail originated by explorers. I really don’t know my explorer history, although I’ve gotten a few chuckles by making obscure references to Vasco DeGama (sp.?)br /Being from the midwest originally I do know a lot about Lewis and Clark. I know enough to know this…. Clark was a dick. A lot of people don’t know that.br /He was always over accessorizing with pelts and often held his hand flat over his eyes to achieve the perception of exploring, even when in the bathroom. Really, Lewis was just trying to get to the end of the earth so he could jump off and get the hell away from Clark.br /br /Everything is breathtaking around here. This is definetely the land of the haves and the have nots. Amazing farms surrounded by run down trailers. The have nots must be here to take care of all the haves crap. Either way, it’s beautiful to ride through here. There are about three churches per person here. Definetely in the bible belt here.br /They all have the same thing. A marquee with a saying about food or death, then a guys first name then some numbers. Ex:br /br /”The bread of death never grows mold. Jacob 3:57″ br /br /My traveling roomate cracked me up and gave me a saying I will forever use. I was doing a shot of tequila by myself and asked him if that was weird. He stopped what he was doing, looked me straight in the eye and said “I do the same thing, it’s not weird if you can find one other person in the world that does the same thing.”br /br /I love that.

What a great day. We had our first epic ride in the mountains. So different from riding a bike in Austin. You can get into a climb and continue to climb for 7-8 miles. Incredible. In Austin, our climbs are maybe half a mile at best. This is a real treat.
We rode to the top of a mountain peak along the Appalachian trail. I say that as if I know what the Appalachian trail is… I really don’t, but I know it was a big enough deal that the federal government made a bunch of wooden signs so the elderly would pull over and block traffic.
I guess this was a trail originated by explorers. I really don’t know my explorer history, although I’ve gotten a few chuckles by making obscure references to Vasco DeGama (sp.?)
Being from the midwest originally I do know a lot about Lewis and Clark. I know enough to know this…. Clark was a dick. A lot of people don’t know that.
He was always over accessorizing with pelts and often held his hand flat over his eyes to achieve the perception of exploring, even when in the bathroom. Really, Lewis was just trying to get to the end of the earth so he could jump off and get the hell away from Clark.

Everything is breathtaking around here. This is definetely the land of the haves and the have nots. Amazing farms surrounded by run down trailers. The have nots must be here to take care of all the haves crap. Either way, it’s beautiful to ride through here. There are about three churches per person here. Definetely in the bible belt here.
They all have the same thing. A marquee with a saying about food or death, then a guys first name then some numbers. Ex:

“The bread of death never grows mold. Jacob 3:57″

My traveling roomate cracked me up and gave me a saying I will forever use. I was doing a shot of tequila by myself and asked him if that was weird. He stopped what he was doing, looked me straight in the eye and said “I do the same thing, it’s not weird if you can find one other person in the world that does the same thing.”

I love that.

object height=”350″ width=”425″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ujrp_8Iqc6Q”param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ujrp_8Iqc6Q” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” height=”350″ width=”425″/embed/object

div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: center”a href=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibE45RZciI/AAAAAAAAAa8/yFJp6y2nIDo/s1600-h/IMGP0742.JPG”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_” alt=”" src=”http://bp0.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibE45RZciI/AAAAAAAAAa8/yFJp6y2nIDo/s160/IMGP0742.JPG” border=”0″ //a /divbr /div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: center”a href=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibE5JRZcjI/AAAAAAAAAbE/i1gqyoknWzE/s1600-h/IMGP0747.JPG”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_” alt=”" src=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibE5JRZcjI/AAAAAAAAAbE/i1gqyoknWzE/s160/IMGP0747.JPG” border=”0″ //a /divbr /Check these pics out. Stopping for fuel in Jackson, Ms and here is a shot of all our bike crap in the back of the plane. The flight out here was awesome. We got to the retreat and got an hour on the bike. Can’t wait to get some good pics out here in the mtns.There’s no freakin bar here! We’re not sure what to do with our evening. Luckily, Mike packed a bottle of tequila. I love bars. I love beer. I miss bars and beer. Everything else is perfect. It’s so dead ass quiet up here in the Ga. mtns it’s eary. Hope I can sleep. God bless tequila.div style=’clear:both; text-align:CENTER’a href=’http://picasa.google.com/blogger/’ target=’ext’img src=’http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif’ alt=’Posted by Picasa’ style=’border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;’ align=’middle’ border=’0′ //a/div

Check these pics out. Stopping for fuel in Jackson, Ms and here is a shot of all our bike crap in the back of the plane. The flight out here was awesome. We got to the retreat and got an hour on the bike. Can’t wait to get some good pics out here in the mtns.There’s no freakin bar here! We’re not sure what to do with our evening. Luckily, Mike packed a bottle of tequila. I love bars. I love beer. I miss bars and beer. Everything else is perfect. It’s so dead ass quiet up here in the Ga. mtns it’s eary. Hope I can sleep. God bless tequila.

div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: center”a href=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibByJRZcgI/AAAAAAAAAas/QxrTkPKcHw8/s1600-h/IMGP0744.JPG”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_” alt=”" src=”http://bp1.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibByJRZcgI/AAAAAAAAAas/QxrTkPKcHw8/s160/IMGP0744.JPG” border=”0″ //a /divbr /div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: center”a href=”http://bp2.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibByZRZchI/AAAAAAAAAa0/12kEXxGaZOg/s1600-h/IMGP0746.JPG”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_” alt=”" src=”http://bp2.blogger.com/_dHmav2z1o1o/RibByZRZchI/AAAAAAAAAa0/12kEXxGaZOg/s160/IMGP0746.JPG” border=”0″ //a /divbr /So, I totally fell into this trip. I have been an avid cycling fan for years but have never made it over to the Tour de France or a European bike race. I have been to the USPRO Championships, which are always in Philly, but I was long overdue to catch a bike race.br /My buddy, Mike offered to let me jump in with him in his plane and head to the Tour of Georgia. I really wasn’t planning on going to this until last week. Mike offered to take me along and it looked like there were some accomodations along with some Austin friends of ours at AMD, big sponsors of the Discovery Team.br /Here’s the cool thing about heading out in Mikes plane. We just got to throw our bikes in the back and all the crap we need and off we go. Airlines charge an extra $50 to transport a bike and it has to be all packaged up. We just pulled off the wheels and threw em in.br /br /I’ll have some shots from the N. Ga mountains coming soon. It’s supposed to be some gorgeous scenery and I promise to bring my camera along on the rides. We are scheduled to do some great mountain climbs… I’m really looking forward to that. Austin has some great hills, but they never last more than a few minutes. br /br /check back soon for reports from Ga. jbdiv style=’clear:both; text-align:CENTER’a href=’http://picasa.google.com/blogger/’ target=’ext’img src=’http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif’ alt=’Posted by Picasa’ style=’border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;’ align=’middle’ border=’0′ //a/div

So, I totally fell into this trip. I have been an avid cycling fan for years but have never made it over to the Tour de France or a European bike race. I have been to the USPRO Championships, which are always in Philly, but I was long overdue to catch a bike race.
My buddy, Mike offered to let me jump in with him in his plane and head to the Tour of Georgia. I really wasn’t planning on going to this until last week. Mike offered to take me along and it looked like there were some accomodations along with some Austin friends of ours at AMD, big sponsors of the Discovery Team.
Here’s the cool thing about heading out in Mikes plane. We just got to throw our bikes in the back and all the crap we need and off we go. Airlines charge an extra $50 to transport a bike and it has to be all packaged up. We just pulled off the wheels and threw em in.

I’ll have some shots from the N. Ga mountains coming soon. It’s supposed to be some gorgeous scenery and I promise to bring my camera along on the rides. We are scheduled to do some great mountain climbs… I’m really looking forward to that. Austin has some great hills, but they never last more than a few minutes.

check back soon for reports from Ga. jb