It's been another big-time April for sporting events and local athletes in Hall County.

This past week, the Tour de Georgia made another successful trip through our home streets. After bypassing Gainesville and Hall completely a few years back, the cross-state bicycle race was all over our area this year. Stage Three ended at City Park on Wednesday, followed by a day's worth of time trials at Road Atlanta on Thursday, and the Suwanee-to-Dahlonega leg the next day.

In addition to the fun of watching world-class athletes zip past our mailboxes, the event brings a good deal of prestige and quite a few tourism dollars to our county. Visitors from all over the nation and world were on hand Wednesday as the riders came through, filling area hotels and restaurants.

What's more, the word-of-mouth exposure that Hall County gets from such an event can pay off even more in the long run.

"It's hard to put a dollar figure on it because of the media impact," said Stacey Dickson, president of the Lake Lanier Convention and Visitors Bureau. "There are international publications and many news outlets here. How could we put a dollar figure on that?"

"It gives potential visitors something about Gainesville and Hall County that they didn't know about before. We become known as a place where you can come and ride your bike," said Cheryl Smith, the regional representative for the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

While some of the world's top athletes were riding through our county last week, several of our own top competitors are looking to break through on the world stage elsewhere.

Last weekend, several paddlers from the Lake Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club took part in the U.S. Olympic canoe and kayak trials in Oklahoma City, and a handful took the next step toward a possible berth in the Beijing Olympics.

The top contender is Morgan House, who will compete in the World Cup in Hungary this June with a good shot at a spot on the U.S. team. House opened eyes by beating Olympic veteran Rami Zur in the 500-meter single kayak event on Saturday. He can earn a spot in Beijing with a strong performance in Hungary.

"It's a big win for me," House said afterward. "I've never won this race before."

"We're doing it now on the international stage so we're testing them internationally to truly see whether Morgan's performance here wasn't just a fluke," U.S. coach Nathan Luce said of his top paddlers.

Tim Hornsby of the LCKC will travel to Montreal for the Pan American Championships May 15-18, where a strong performance will earn him a spot on the American squad. Also still in Olympic team competition are Katie Hagler and Emily Mickle, who will try to qualify in the Continental Qualifier.

Several junior members of the team had strong performances in Oklahoma City and will head to the Pan Am Games. They include Emily Vinson, Anna Crawford, Will Roszel, Ben Hefner and Chelsea Smith.

When Lake Lanier first served as host of the Olympic rowing and paddling events in 1996, the local clubs began training athletes for a future Olympic berth. As more of them began succeeding at national and international meets, the hope that an Olympian could be in their ranks continued to grow each year. Some of them now are on the verge of doing just that, which would bring enormous pride and prestige to the Lanier club and the entire community.

Meanwhile, as some of our local athletes head north to seek a trip to China, some of the top paddlers from up there are headed our way. The Olympic venue at Clarks Bridge Park will serve as an Olympic qualifying site for the Canadian canoe and kayak team next weekend.

Some 130 athletes will be in town this week seeking spots on that nation's International Tour Team, a springboard to the Olympics. Spectators are invited to watch the trials for free, offering them a chance to revisit some of the magic of the '96 Games while seeing competitors who may join our own local paddlers in Beijing this summer.

All of these successes are just another notch in our belt as the emerging sports capital of North Georgia. Oh sure, Athens has the Bulldogs, and Atlanta has its pro and college teams galore. As sporting destinations, they're both hard to top.

But when it comes to drawing big-name events to town while sending our own talented athletes to major competitions elsewhere, Gainesville and Hall County don't need to take a back seat to anyone.