Riding the Noog

I guess hard habits are hard to break. Although I had the hotel curtains closed tight and made a point of turning off all of the alerts on my phone, I still awoke about 6 a.m. I managed to sneak out without disturbing the fam .

After a quick gulp of hotel coffee (ick), I hit the streets of Chattanooga on the road bike, headed down River road , along the river front and crossed over on one of the bridges to the Red Bank area. Downtown was quiet and bike routes were well marked. I rode around Red Bank a while and crossed over another bridge back into Chattanooga. This city seems to be very bike friendly.

One highlight on the ride was finding Firefighter Memorial Fountain. This is the site of a criterium that Wig, Ccup, and I raced back during our Pedros farm team days in 92'. The course had a 6% climb and remember it being quite difficult after a several laps. Curtis became a legend in my mind here for his famous attack on a prime lap for a case of Powerade. He tore the pack to pieces and then dropped out to leave the rest of us to suffer. So... one toast to nostalgia.

Looks like my kind of place in Red Bank

Off to play in the Noog the rest the day with the Fam. This evening we will hit the road to Ky and the Farm.