Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Forbes has the story, which mentions a new development that just sounds frackin’ crazy:
Pla D’Adet
The mountain roads of the western Carolinas are a cyclist’s paradise. Lance Armstrong trained here for his Tour de France victories. George Hincapie, U.S. National 2006 champ, lives in Greenville, the site of the country’s top pro race for the past two years. And soon to break ground is Pla d’Adet, which is surely the world’s first luxury cycling village.
Laid out across 300 acres north of Greenville, along a popular local ride to the sleepy town of Saluda, Pla d’Adet is offering 97 homesites surrounding a 40,000-square-foot Hincapie Performance Training Center, built into a hillside. George Hincapie and his brother Richard are partners in the development (which is named after George’s career-highlight ’05 Tour stage win in the Pyrenees), and they designed the Center’s somewhat unusual set of amenities.
“Lactic acid testing, anaerobic threshold testing, high-altitude training rooms,” says Richard. “We want to replicate the life of a pro athlete for the everyday person.” There will also be an indoor 25-meter training pool and a four-mile rubberized running track throughout the property, with specialized multisport coaches available for triathletes.
“This is for the guy that says, ‘Instead of golf courses I want 500 miles of road around me,'” says Bill West, a wealthy telecom industry retiree, who now leads Pla d’Adet’s sales effort. No plush “discovery” office here; West takes prospective buyers on grueling rides in the area in an attempt to convince them to make a homesite reservation. “They love it,” says West. “These are guys who have been to Hilton Head and said, ‘That’s not me. This is me. I’m a cyclist and I want to hang out with cyclists.'”
Homesites starting from $400,000. www.pladadet.com
