Arrival

Well, it’s official. I am now at THE Tour de Georgia. If I wasn’t excited before, I sure am now. What this race does is incredible. I walked out of baggage claim last night to a small army of Tour staff, with vehicles lined several deep waiting for arriving teams, staff, press, and sponsors. I was promptly located by my ride (a brand new 2009 Ford Excursion) and shuttled to our beach front hotel.
This is exciting. I boarded a plane in Columbus ready to do another bike race. Georgia was sure to be something special, but I never would have imagined anything like this. A combination of crashing waves and early morning adrenaline woke me up at 7 a.m. this morning. 7 a.m. is typically an experience reserved for all nighters and early morning bike races. Those are the only two reasons I can ever think to be up so early, and always involve coffee and alarm clocks. Georgia doesn’t need those. There is something in the air that MAKES you want to get up.
I haven’t been this excited about something in a long time. Its the kind of excitement you can feel in the tips of your fingers and the bottom of your stomach. The excitement that you cant get rid of, even if you wanted to. This is one of the few places on earth where people wish Monday morning would hurry up and come, we want to see a bike race.
All this chatter and I’m not even registered with the tour yet. I’ve only been here for eight hours, and I’ve only been awake for two of them, but I could survive on that experience for another ten days. Luckily, I don’t have to. Check back for updates.