That would be for moi, who just arrived in Savannah after an epic travel day to get here.

Ol’ 10 Speed drove from STL, 900-some miles, 13-some hours. Pretty much a straight shot. Put the PD team car on cruise and away you go. Cuppla pit stops and next thing you know, here I am. Ta-da.

The Tour de Georgia starts tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. on Tybee Island, with a 70.4 mile stage that travels across the bridge into Savannah. I’ll be there to capture all the excitement, and I’ll be hop-skipping-and-jumping across the state throughout the week as the peloton meanders north for the dramatic Brasstown Bald climb to close Stage 6 before the finish Sunday in Atlanta.

My goal this week isn’t just to cover the race, but to cover the event –, the sights and sounds, the whoopla, that sort of thing – and take you, my faithful niche following, to wherever it is I happen to be, and hopefully that’ll be some place fun and entertaining and different.

That’s the beauty of the blog, being unconfined to a finite amount of time and space like in the paper. So last century.

We do have a few neat things in store for readers from the TdG.

–A daily rider diary: Matt Wilson of Team Type I has been lined up to take you inside the peloton for each stage. Wilson is a former Aussie national champ and a Tour de France veteran. He’s racing in the U.S. for the first time.

– Daily photos: We’ve made the technological leap that stymied us at the Tour of Missouri, so photos should be a daily feature of the blog. The pix will be more travelogue/scene-ish than action shot-ish.

– Bike rides: Part of the reason for driving was to lug me bike along to actually ride parts of a few stages –  primarily Brasstown Bald, which should kick my arse, even using a triple w/a 27 cog on back. The Brasstown beast rises with a 20-percent gradient at times, brutal.

The Balf’s reputation precedes it, even among the pros. Santiago Botero of Rock Racing had this to say about Brasstown Bald on Sunday at the pre-race press gathering. “I don’t know the stage, but everybody told me about it. It’s steep, steep. I heard it’s very hard. It’s hard.”

Easy for him to say. I’ve got five days to lose 50 pounds and ride myself into shape.

– Interesting people. Michael Ball, the owner of Rock Racing, is supposed to be here by the end of the week. Dude’s a magnet for whoopla wherever he goes.

Frank Arokiasamy, the Tour of America guy by way of SIUC, already is in town, and I should see him tomorrow.  

China is represented in the peloton with the GE Marco Polo-Trek team. Reminescent of the Tecos cats at the Tour of Missouri last year. I expect to see some aggressive riding from Marco Polo.

– Great athletes: Leipheimer, Big George, Zabriskie, VandeVelde, Julich, Rodriguez, Horner, Danielson, Botero, Sevilla, Hamilton … just to name a few.

“It may be the best field ever at the Tour de Georgia,” Leipheimer said Sunday, according to a transcript from the pre-race news conference. “The Tour de Georgia has built quite a history already, and it’s going to continue. We’re here to see that it continues to grow.”

And we, as in me, are here to bring it to you exclusively on STLtoday.com.

As always, enjoy the ride!

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