Cyclists descend upon Milledgeville streets

Spectators lined Hancock Street as the 2005 Dodge Tour de Georgia rolled through Milledgeville Tuesday afternoon.

Stage 1 of the Tour de Georgia began in Augusta Tuesday morning and ended 128.9 miles later on Cherry Street in downtown Macon.

There are 120 cyclists from more than 20 countries in this year’s race, but there was one rider in particular who brought out much of the crowd.

“I wanted to see Lance Armstrong’s last race here in Georgia,” graduate student Bob Bahn said.

Armstrong announced in a press conference Monday that he will retire from professional cycling after the Tour de France this July.

“After a lot of thought, I’ve decided that the Tour de France will be my last race as a professional cyclist,” Armstrong said at the press conference. “It will be the last one, win or lose.”

Crowds began to gather at 1 p.m. at the corner of Hancock Street and Clarke Street for a bicycle stunt performance in front of the Old Governor’s Mansion.

The four-man BK BMX Stunt Team, sponsored by Maxxis International, performed two shows prior to the tour riders coming down Hancock Street.

The stunt team travels ten months a year performing everywhere from colleges to NBA halftime shows.

Zack Yankush or, as he prefers to be called, Catfish, is the senior member of the team and has been a BMX professional rider for seven years.

Catfish was pleased with the crowd turnout for the show and excited about the stunt team’s involvement with the Tour de Georgia.

“It’s cool because we are so out of our element,” Catfish said. “Normally every function we go to is for BMX, so it’s cool to be able to hang out with people who have a passion for cycling, only it’s a different type of cycling.”

Sophomore Doug Kellogg came out to watch the BMX stunt show and take a break from studying.

“It was really cool,” Kellogg said. “It’s amazing what they can do.”

Following the stunt show, fans milled about on the street. Some sat on the curb or under a shade tree. Others climbed out on rooftops to get a good view.

Time dragged on.

Whenever a Dodge vehicle with flashing lights came down Hancock street, fans stood up and edged their way onto the street until it was jammed with people.

Police and volunteers moved the crowds back to the sides of the road where they waited until the next car or truck in the seemingly endless supply Dodge vehicles approached.

Then came a platoon of Georgia State Patrol vehicles, lights flashing and sirens wailing, followed by a lone rider.

Fans cheered and waited.

Eight minutes later the peloton, traveling at around 20 mph, came into view.

Seconds later it was gone.

As the riders passed, fans quickly scanned their faces, hidden by sunglasses and helmets, trying to pick out the one rider many of them spent their afternoon waiting just to catch a glimpse of – Lance Armstrong.

Although it was difficult to distinguish the riders, fans were not disappointed.

“It was worth it,” Bahn said. “If that was Lance.”

Whether the fans realized they saw him or not, somewhere in the peloton, in a navy-blue jersey, was Lance.

Knowing that made it worth it.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 22 2005. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry