George Hincapie lives in Greenville and has done a lot for the sport of cycling here. He and his brother also bought a closed hotel and restaurant on the way up to the mountains and renovated and reopened it. So tonight, they decided to have a ride and party to celebrate the Tour, so I figured, "why not?" and headed up the mountain after work.
I got to Hotel Domestique at approximately 5:27 for a 5:30 roll. Luckily I had my cycling clothes on under my dress that I wore to work, so it was just shoes, helmet, gloves, sunglasses, water and a quick sunscreen. I grabbed my bike and ran toward the start - it felt just like being in transition in a tri. By the time I got there the ride had just barely started and I easily found my friends... but I didn't even catch a glimpse of George. I took some pictures of the crowd - I'm sure he's up there somewhere.
About 10ish miles in my group lost the main group. After trying 2 roads unsuccessfully, we found someone who at least told us how to get back. He said Banks Rd had a nice climb... how right he was. I wasn't prepared when we made the left turn and couldn't get into a more suitable climbing gear. I was pushing and pushing, trying to stay vertical, but eventually I just got too slow and fell over. Luckily an uphill crash at 1 mph wasn't too bad and my bike and I were both OK. Apparently I can't quite do a 14% grade in the big ring from stopped. :) It leveled off about halfway up though and I was able to get in a better gear and get going for the 13-14% push to the top. Then a long down, another climb, some valley and back out to where we had come out. Our "unofficial" route was 16.8 miles with a decent amount of climbing.
Back at Domestique, there was a tour watching party. I just wanted to eat all of the food, but I did get George to sign my copy of his book and take a picture. :)
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