That's Some Rollin'

I just caught up on a wee bit of coverage of the Tour de Georgia, which I keep forgetting about because it is kind of ... forgettable. (Sorry, JC!) I'm not even that big of a pro-racing fan -- just enough to know that the continental teams all sent their "B" or "C" squads to Georgia.

That's not to say, though, that the Georgia race hasn't had its surprises. Take Stage 1, for instance. Boring and very, very flat, the (many) critics have complained. Maybe so -- and maybe that doesn't make for the most dramatic racing. But it makes for a very fast stage -- and the need for speed is, after all, the reason we roadies quit sitting upright on fat-tire bikes.

And if you like speed, look at the average pace for that stage: 28.7 mph!

That, man, is a wicked-fast pace. The top local riders might (might!) sustain for a dozen or two miles at even-flatter Westlake, on a good day, and TdG's stage one was almost triple that length!

- JN