Tour de Georgia

What an exciting event! I'll have to admit that I don't keep up with biking, don't know much about the sport (although who hasn't heard of Lance Armstrong?). However, that said, it was a lot of fun yesterday at the kick-off.

These are world-class athletes and they have a huge fan base! They are obviously completely committed to their sport and love it. They were gracious, fun and intense.

Another thing that struck me about the start was the community involvement and enthusiasm the Tour generated. I have no idea how many people were there, how many lined the streets to see the racers zoom by their spot, but there were a LOT of people milling around.

I stood next to a couple from Minnesota who were here simply to see the race. They had their bikes and probably took a nice spin after the hoopla was over.

I took over 600 photos! That's a record for me. I have quite a daunting task ahead, sorting through them to find the keepers. I took a quick look last night and haven't seen many that I'll easily give up! We also filmed the event and will have the video on the site within the week. We're going to air some clips on our TV show this Friday if we can get it edited into the show in time.

I met a 3-time Olympic athlete volunteering at one of the booths. I saw so many people I knew I'm surprised I found time to take photos. We didn't get to all the booths set up by Main Street, local vendors and various businesses and non-profits. We could hear the band, but only managed to get one shot. Quite a few showed up on their bicycles, many in full biking gear. There was food, food, food, give-away items, the Delta "airplane" flitted around and there were plenty of porta-potties. What more could you want?

If the Tour comes through again next year, grab your family & come enjoy the fun! This year Peachtree City was chosen as the starting point for the Tour. Hopefully they'll get it again next year!