For cycling fans in Georgia and elsewhere this is a great week of racing. The Tour de Georgia a weeklong cycling race with 7 stages -started it's run on Monday 4/21-from Tybee Island, Ga. ending later that afternoon in Downtown Savannah. The 71 mile, Stage 1 run -which double looped thru the city before ending at the Civic Center-saw excited crowds all along the race course. Approximately, 15 teams with 119 cyclists competed in the first leg of the Tour which ends in Atlanta, Ga. on Sunday -4/27. The 2nd leg of the tour on Tuesday was from Statesboro, Ga. (45 mi. n.w. of savannah) to Augusta, Ga.
As a real estate agent working both the Savannah and Statesboro market, I had the opportunity to see parts of the race in both of those locations. It was amazing to see the cyclists whizzing by - at incredible speeds and to see the turn out of spectators, not counting all the crew and media cars traveling up and down I-16 to cover the event between Savannah and Statesboro.
This international cycling event, which features some of the world ‘s best and fastest cyclists are competing in this 7 day event to improve their standing nationally and internationally. Among the 15 teams: 4 are UCI Pro Tour (elite international teams), 2 are UCI Professional Continental (teams trying to earn invitations to events such as Tour De France), 8 are Continental-UCI American Tour (teams that concentrate on domestic events) and 1-Continental-UCI Asia Tour.
The winner of Stage I in Savannah, was Ivan Dominguez " the Cuban Missile Crisis" a native of Havana, Cuba who rides for Toyota-United. His winning time was 2:30:18.2, with two other racers only .1 of a second behind him. In fact, the top 10 were only a total of .7 of a second behind. There were fears of heavy head winds riding out of Tybee Island but they never materialized-and the temperature was perfect making for a great race.
For more information about the race as it winds through Georgia-go to: http://tourdegeorgia.com or go to http://savannahnow.com for audio and video of the races start and progress.
Comments (5)Subscribe to CommentsComment