I was fortunate enough to experience the USCF Elite Road Race Cycling Championships here in Nashville as part of the city's Freedom Fest 2002 weekend.

I guess the highlight of the whole day was getting a chance to ride in one of the pace cars that follow the racers throughout the course. Let's just say that I was under the impression that we would be casually following the racers at around 20 mph but man, was I wrong. Right when I jumped in the car, the driver sped off like there was no tomorrow and we were hitting 90 mph on two-lane streets with normal traffic everywhere, weaving between tractor trailors and pedestrians. It was like being in a movie! We hit this one curve so hard that the whole car swerved and almost spun out but this driver was serious and skilled. Apparently, we were behind the pack of leaders and had to catch up quickly. Once we were in place, it was pretty calm.

It was a such a rush!!! Hehe... Here are some pics:



This was the car we rode in



Some of the racers



The award ceremony

I also shot a poor quality video while in the pace car with my digicam, which can only record like 80 seconds of video. Click to download...