Stage Two: Sunny and Fabulous!

What a great day of racing we had today! Three guys were away from early on--and one stayed away almost to the finishing circuits in Rome. That climb up Clock Tower Hill is brutal! Thanks to the jumbo-tron I could stay at the finish line and still see what was happening on the back side of the circuit.

I met a great guy along the barricades. He was born and raised in Rome and is a youth minister at his non-denominational church. He plays football at Jackson State University, but had never watched a pro bike race. We had a good talk about church stuff (same everywhere!) and I gave him the uber quick bike racing tutorial. Here's a shout out to Jason--keep watching those bike races!

I loved spending time in Rome today. It is a lovely town with lots of cool little shops and lots (meaning seemingly hundreds...) of churches. Oh my--this is the Bible Belt! I'm putting together a little gallery of church steeples which I'll post when I have time. Oh, and the local Episcopal church (which was locked up tighter than a drum--wouldn't want any bike fans to get in and mess the place up...) has this gorgeous house in which their offices are located. Seriously, it's all white columns and up on a hill. (Yes, jealous.) Still, though, the other mainline churches in that corner of the town made ours seem tiny. The Presbyterian Church was massive. And not locked up--they were hosting the post-race press conference. Sigh.

Yesterday, when I tried to mix photos with text the blog entry went all wonky, so today I'll put photos in a separate post. As soon as I download them. And edit them. And then upload them. Right, this may take a while...