Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

I am a beast!

So, I went and did the Six Gap Century this last weekend. What an epic ride. In Georgia a "gap" is what everyone else calls a pass through the mountains so, as you might surmise" the century took over six passes or gaps; Neal's, Jack's, Unicoi, Hogpen, Wolfpen and Woody's. The first three gaps weren't oo bad. I managed to stay with the lead group throughout the climbs but I had trouble on the descents. I'm not used to descending at speeds of 40+ miles and hour throguh switchback turns so I got dropped on each descent. The good news was that as soon at the group hit the flats, I was able to hook back up. Coming down off Unicoi I got dropped "for good" which was OK since I didn't wnat to climb Hogpen in a group and I certainly didn't wish to havre to deal with descending in groups any more.

Hogpen is the really, really hard climb on the ride. There's a 2 mile section in the middle that's a relentless 12-14% grade that you have to grind up. I was climbing well and when I hit the bottom I was only about 45 seconds off the back of the main group. I quickly passed about 30% of the now fragmented lead group before we got to the steep part and then proceeded to make up a lot of time on the rest of people. The stategy was too just keep steady rhythm and kind of do a zen mind thing to hold off the pain. When my heart rate hit 187 I would paper boy a bit to get it back odwn and then resume the climbing. By the top I had caught and passed all but about 25 guys. The way down Hogpen was fast and tricky and I decided that not only did I need better brakes but that I was never going to do this ride again.

At the bottom I rolled along some pretty relaxed stuff with another guy until just before Wolfpen were I dropped him on a long steady rise. I skipped the rest stop because I felt good and didn't think I would need water. About 3/4 of the way up Wolfpen, I realized what a bad decision that was when I reached for some water and there was none to be had. I knew there was a rest stop at the top so I told myself to hang on until then. As I went around each switchback I kept telling myself that the top was just around the next corner. At soem point I became convinced that I was just about at the top and when I turned the corner and there was still a lot more upwardly pointed road I think my will just left me. I realized that there was this bright spot growing in my vision and that I was wobbling pretty bad on the bike. I was about to bonk! So I stopped, ate a Balance bar and sipped the last few drops of water I had and let my heart rate come down. After about 5 minutes I got back on the bike and easily rode the last 3/4 of a mile tot he rest stop and got some real food and more water.

The rest of the ride was pretty simple. I got over Woody gap and then descended for the next 15 miles to Dahlonega and the finish which was a lot of fun. I finished with a time of 5 hours and 12 minutes which was great. I was around 25th out of 1600 or so riders which was a whole lot better than I expected to do. So it was a good ride and a good time. Walkign on Monday was an adventure but I'm feeling a lot better now so hopefully I'll be able to get out and put in a good ride today.

Thanks for reading.

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