Locals make lifelong dreams a reality
Often there is no perfect time to take that long-awaited trip of a lifetime. Expenses aside, it can seem intimidating – though the perspective gained often helps us better enjoy our lives back home. For three Chattanoogans, 2016 proved to be their year to grab life by the horns, so to speak, and go, whether that experience included being nearly stampeded by more than a dozen enraged bulls, ascending the highest peaks of the Tour de France or honing photography skills in the fjords of Iceland. By simply making the decision to venture out, their lives were changed forever, and their stories just might inspire your best year ever in 2017. * Chattanooga-based cycling group takes on Europe’s toughest and most famous climbs* Thoughts of mortality, growing wanderlust lead photographer to ‘Land of Fire and Ice’* Chattanooga-transplant travels to Spain to run with the bulls
David Graham, by his own admission, may not be an elite cyclist capable of competing in world-class races like the Tour de France. But after a bike ride trip through the French Alps – on some of those same roads – the 31-year-old better understands the fortitude required to ascend some of the highest peaks, something his 12 years of cycling experience on the trails of Chattanooga couldn’t prepare him for.
“It definitely made me realize Lookout Mountain isn’t that big,” laughs Graham. But the experience did make him feel more of a connection to professional cyclists.
“To be able to come back and watch the Tour and point and say ‘I remember that!’ is amazing,” he says.
Graham took the trip with 15 of his comrades, all members of Team Bubba, a laid-back Chattanooga-based cycling group that anyone can join. They booked their guided tour through Discover France, which would take the cyclists from Mont Ventoux – one of the most grueling components of the Tour de France due to its elevation and steep grade – to L’Alp d’Huez, a towering ski resort farther north. Ventoux stands 6,273 feet tall, while L’Alp d’Huez is only 150 feet shorter, with a wide, sweeping valley of wildflowers separating the two.