Tuesday, July 4th 2000
Dothan, AL to Cordele, GA; 140 miles, 1,200’ climbing
by Arend-Jan Koning
On independence day, the crew is lucky again; the hotel is serving a full breakfast from 6 am onwards, while the scheduled time of departure is between 6.45 and 7.00. The breakfast doesn’t quite match the high standards of the regular PAC Tour breakfast, but is still o.k.
After two days of easy going, today seems like the first test of strength. As the figures show, today is twice the previous day in mileage and in climbing. That’s exactly how it felt.
The weather is at the start just perfect for cycling, which could be the reason why a large group of riders start a high speed chase with the tandem ridden by Jay Ambroson and Terry Gooch leading the pack (chasing what?). We all seem to love it, though some riders make moves that could be regarded as potentially dangerous. No crashes yet.
This time I can’t complain about the absence of a sign marking the Georgia border, but the photo opportunity is not spent on me, since the chase is still on. The first stop, after 25 miles breaks up the large group into many more smaller groups, creating a safer situation. German powerhouse Bernd takes some joy from drafting from the trailer behind the Motel truck going up to a speed of about 37 mph. That doesn’t last very long.
As far as the scenery is concerned, it is quite similar to yesterday but with more farming areas, including peanut farming. Traffic is low all day round.
Our second rest stop is located in the small but characteristic town of Arlington, but unfortunately, one of the riders doesn’t get that far. With only a few hundred yards to go to the sag stop, a car driver overtakes Gerald Goode, and cuts across him to turn right. There is no way Gerald can avoid the car and he falls hard on the tarmac. His helmet protects him from serious head injury but his hips take the full blast. After being taken to hospital, where the doctors find nothing broken, Gerald is driven to the hotel in Cordele. All of us wish him well while he hopes to be back on the bike in a couple of days. It’s a negative highlight of the day.
With the length of today’s route, we have at last an al fresco lunch by the roadside. In this case, it’s a shaded area of the entrance to the local high school in Dawson. All the recidivists know that this is true PAC Tour style lunch. Tastes great as well, as usual.
From lunch it’s still another 47 miles to go to the finish in Cordele, the self acclaimed watermelon capital of the world. In the front riders take advantage of the lack of hills, making pulls up to 30 miles per hour. I pass.
Back at the motel, the afternoon after the ride is way shorter than it used to be: with the 140 miles route, arrival is later as usual and we passed a time zone, so we lost an hour in the process. For some a short swim, dinner and after that recuperation in bed. We don’t have the energy to watch the independence day fireworks.