"Where are the locusts"
That was a statement by one of my friends on top of Woody's Gap shortly after the hail storm. If you were there you know what I am talking about. In the span of a few minutes, the sky turned very dark, heavy rains fell, and then the hail. I think it hailed for about 5-7 minutes. The hail covered the road. It looked like snow.
Our day started early. By 'our' I mean myself and the gang of friends from Central Florida that had come up to watch the race. They all brought their bikes to ride. One even brought his wife, it was their 20th anniversary, but that's a whole other story.
Basecamp was my mother's home in Duluth, GA. Rather than playing hotel shuffle we all stayed with her or near her (the anniversary couple stayed at the Alpharetta Marriott). With this central location we would be driving a little bit each day. On Thursday it was to Rome and back. About a two hour drive.
Friday morning our plan was to get to the top of Woody's to secure a parking space by 8:30am. I arrived at Woody's around 9am last year and was able to secure one of the last few spots. For those of you who are new to the TdG the first race was ridiculed becuase the only 'climb' in the entire race was the short side of Woody's.
We arrived at the top to find what I expected, quite a few spots taken, but still some room. But alas the a*#hole park ranger would not let us double park like we had done the previous two years. So it was back down the long-side to find a space.
We parked and I played mini-team director. All the guys got their gear ready and planned to ride the 3-Gap route in advance of the real racers.
While the gang took off to ride, I hiked back up the mountain with coolers, chairs and the abandoned annivesary wife. We walked over the Woody's KOM and back down the other side and staked our claim to an area around 200M from the top. I had learned last year that this location is a bit better than the actual summit since you can see the riders a bit longer.
Some cars were parked along the road in certain locations but for the most part it seemed to be off-limits like last year. That soon changed, many people began to park along the road, often over the white line. The pattern soon reached a critical mass, the point at which there was nothing the rangers could do...what are they going to tow everybody? I quickly hiked back down to our vehicles and drove the Jeep back up and parked 'behind' our chairs.
One thing that is great about following the race year after year is that you see the same people. I saw a guy from Maryland and his son who painted the road on Woody's last year. They painted again this year. One item was a great rendition of the TdG 'Peaches' logo.
Now the wait begins. Part 2 coming soon.
