Far Past Six at 6-Gap

Missing Frank but everyone else ready for the start

I was on the early slopes of the roughly 6-mile Hogpen Gap climb when a rider pulled up alongside. I was plodding my way up the 7-14% grade at about 5 miles per hour, locked into the 39x29. "It gets harder every year," said Steve. I grunted something along the lines of, "No kidding! My legs are shot." Steve inched slowly ahead as my unresponsive legs refused to lift my pace by the half mph it would have taken to stay with him. My neck and back were killing me, I was sweating more than normal, and already running low on water. But I was still riding, and under the circumstances I was happy with that. The bike was shifting when needed, the new 29-tooth cog was easing the strain a bit, and the jaw from which the dentist had ripped a tooth earlier in the week wasn't bothering me at all.

This was my 11th year to ride the 6-Gap Century up in Dahlonega. I would have guessed it hadn't been quite so many years had I not gone back through the blog and checked after Debbie Milne posted about it being her 15th year. I'd driven up the day before with the Tulane group, of which there were ten this year, not counting me and Dustin. Like last year, we didn't get to roll out of New Orleans until about 8:00 am, and like last year we arrived in Dahlonega a few minutes after 6 pm, which is when packet pickup officially ends. Luckily, although the volunteers were starting to pack up, we were still able to pick up our numbers and chips and t-shirts. We had a bit of a wait before we could get a table at Manuel's, which had recently moved to a new location just across the street from the old one. With my mouth still a bit of a disaster zone, I ate carefully and sparingly, as I have had to do all week. It was pretty much the opposite of carbo-loading, I guess, and probably not exactly recommended procedure prior to what would undoubtedly be a difficult 6+ hour ride in the mountains of North Georgia. I'd be putting a lot of faith in the energy gels this year.

At Manuel's Saturday evening

For a change, we had reserved hotel rooms early enough this year to be staying at the nearby Super 8, which was only about fifteen minutes away, and conveniently next to a Waffle House. That was good. When we tried to check in, however, that was bad. As the Indian at the desk tried to explain, English not being his first language by a long shot, the credit card authorization that Tulane had used to make the reservations had apparently been lacking a phone number. So he had cancelled the charge and wanted another credit card. We tried to call Michelle at Tulane to straighten it out, but she didn't answer, so I gave him my own Tulane travel card, knowing full well it was going to cause me all kinds of grief down the road with our corporate travel system. A few minutes later, Michelle returned the call and ultimately, with some difficulty, convinced the guy to credit back the charge on my card and put it instead on her card where it had been originally. Sheesh! Anyway, we were finally all set and everyone hit the sack around 10:30 or so. Hitting the sack, in my case, did not seem to include a lot of sleeping for some reason. Maybe I should have had that beer that I didn't have at dinner.

So Sunday morning we were up well before 6 am and went over to the Waffle House for breakfast. I wasn't really willing to take a chance on anything at Waffle House, considering my mouth and all, so breakfast for me was basically a gel, a cup of hotel coffee, 500 mg of penicillin, and a 12-hour Aleve. Perfect breakfast prior to a six and a half hour ride with close to 12,000 feet of climbing. Anyway, I was rather anxious about the timing and worried that the stop at Waffle House was going to get us to the start too late to get a good parking spot, but fortunately there were lots of spots left when we arrived a bit after 6:30 am for the 7:30 am start.

I got the bike ready with two big water bottles, and put a full flask of gel and a couple of gel packs in my pockets, along with my phone. Then attached the number plate with the timing chip to my handlebar, which I hated doing but it was what it was and the extra wind resistance was unlikely to impact my climbing "speed" anyway. By the time I got down to the start I'd lost track of the other Tulane riders who were doing the full 6-Gap distance, but found Pat and Steve just behind the "6-hour" rope. The start itself was pretty fast but was also fairly uneventful, which is to say I didn't see any crashes. I think there were probably about 100-150 riders up the road ahead of me by the time we hit the first little climb that isn't one of the 6 "gaps" but probably should be. That climb is fairly short and not too steep, and I was comfortable at around 11 mph for the most part. I was already expecting to blow up after a few hours, so I wasn't pushing my luck. I found another rider who was going at just the right speed and just tagged along behind him so he could pace me. The first real climb wasn't too bad, but I remember thinking, "I really need to start working on my core!" as it started. I could tell that my back and arms were going to be causing me trouble later. Somewhere along here I shifted to that new 29-tooth cog, which basically allowed me to go a little more slowly that usual but also with a little less strain.

Somewhere on Hogpen Steve came by as I was inching my way up the mountain at four or five miles per hour. Then he stopped at the top and I didn't, so I went down Hogpen a little bit ahead of him. I didn't push the descent too much, staying in the upper 30s to upper 40s. I think my max was around 49 mph. Right at the top of Wolfpen, which is one of the timed segments, Debbie Milne came flying past. I had just enough time to give her a "Go Debbie" before she crossed the timing mat just ahead of me. Just before the start of the climb up to Wolfpen Gap I stopped for some water because I didn't think I was going to make it with what I had left. Steve apparently passed me again around there. My legs were pretty much cooked at that point and my neck was killing me, especially on the downhills, so I was spending a lot of time going 4-5 mph on the climbs after that. The final long descent, which is always one of my favorites, was even better this year with nice fresh smooth asphalt. If I'd had anything left I would have really pushed it there, but as it was I let gravity do most of the work. It was already obvious that my finishing time would be well over a half-hour longer than it was in my better years, so there wasn't much point in pushing it. The last long stretch of rolling hills was made a bit easier when a couple of riders caught me and I was able to tag along behind most of the way to the finish. My finishing time was by far the slowest ever, something like 6:38. As it turned out I was just a couple of minutes behind Steve. A couple of the Tulane riders, however, had great times, around the 5:30 and under mark, although they neglected to attach their timing chips so they'd be readable, so they don't show up in the official listing. A couple of the TUCA riders who had been planning on doing the shorter 3-gap ride decided to start in-between the official 6-gap and 3-gap start times and managed to take a wrong turn that resulted in a nice long tour of the area south of the actual ride route.

We headed back without much delay this year, stopping for a minute at the hotel again to retrieve my glasses that I had left on the night stand. Other than a couple of hours of moderate rain, the drive back was happily uneventful with Gavin doing the last stretch from Mobile into New Orleans, so I was back home I think before midnight.