Sawtooth

I hadn't ridden an official century in about a decade, so Sunday, Sept 30 I opted to take on the 6 Gap Century in Dahlonega, GA. This ride takes in some of the most nasty climbs of the Tour of Georgia, including Wolfpen Gap, Hogpen Gap and Unicoi Gap. All in all I think it was around 11K feet of climbing. Since I have been training irregularly lately, I opted to go for the enjoyable completion rather than shortest time. I woke up bright and early so I could make it down and start on time. Promptly at 7:30 AM the century riders took off. It was a cold morning so I'm glad I had thought to bring armwarmers and an undershirt. Even so I still got the shivers on the downhills early on. But I wasn't nearly as bad off as the goons from Florida who were wearing sleeveless jerseys. Anyway the ride started at a reasonable pace and I leapfrogged my way from group to group towards the front. Good thing I did because less than 10 miles in I heard a crash behind me. The first couple climbs came and went and I felt pretty good. I stayed within my limits and paced myself knowing there was much worse to come. To keep my head out of the competitive mindset I forced myself to stop at every rest stop and pig out on the usual cookies, bananas, PBJ, etc. The mile markers seemed spaced very far apart. I suppose that's due to the climbing we all were enduring. Finally I cruised over the top of Unicoi Gap and saw the base of the climb to Brasstown Bald. Damn, was that thing STEEP! I'm very glad that was not part of the course. We carried on and made it to Hogpen Gap. My respect for pros increased a great deal on this climb. Hearing of them attacking each other on this blows my mind. This was 7 miles of gravity mocking me. I was in my 26 tooth cog for the majority of this climb and was wishing I had a compact crank. It seemed to go straight up with the worst of it very exposed. As I looked around everyone seemed to be in slowmotion. Some folks were walking about as fast as I was riding. The rest stop at the top of Hogpen was the biggest one of the day and I made sure I enjoyed it. It was a lot of work to get there. Zooming down the back of Hogpen was a test of nerve. Bad road, lots of turns and shade. But I made it down safely and with a grin on my face. The other big climb of the day was Wolfpen Gap on which you've also heard about the pros going crazy. This was the prettiest climb of the day. Narrow, shady, lots of turns and lots of painted messages left over from the TdG. Wolfpen was a challenge but the turns and scenery distracted my mind a bit and made it much less painful than Hogpen. I strongly recommend coming down this way and bringing your bike or motorcycle. It really is something. The last climbs of the day weren't terribly challenging except for the fact that my legs were shattered by the more famous climbs of the day. I felt fair though and timed my Clif Shot to perfection with 15 miles to go. I actually had some energy left over to carry me to the end. Of course the 6 mile descent back towards the finish helped too. As John Harritt knows I don't ride with electronics on my bike so I'm not sure of my exact time, but I think I finished in about 6.5 hours including rest stops. The link can be found here.