96 Gaps

Post-ride group pic

It was time again for another trip up to Dahlonega for the annual Six Gap Century. This would be my 16th, if I survived, which would take me to a cumulative total of 96 Gaps and nearly 1,600 miles. I must be crazy. For weeks, the Tulane Cycling & Triathlon group had been working diligently on the logistics involved in transporting and housing 17 riders, and like last year had secured an entire home in a gated community (Bent Tree Community) in the mountains near Jasper, GA, which was about an hour's drive from Dahlonega itself. Donata, the club advisor, had secured two of the big Ecology & Evolutionary Biology vans, and two minivans from the motor pool were reserved. The plan was for most of the bikes to travel in the Biology vans along with two drivers each, and packing the minivans with everyone else. Like last year, we'd be driving up on Friday so that on Saturday we could do a short ride and pick up our packets in Dahlonega.

Waiting for the minivans to arrive

Everyone would be meeting up at HQ for 7:00 am, so I had Candy drop me off. By then HQ was crowded with the seats that had been removed from the Biology vans, and we were ready to load up the bikes. 

Packed

This time we arranged the bikes sideways, which worked amazingly well in the wide vans. I think we had 7 or 8 bikes in each van. Of course, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and in this case there had been some miscommunication with the motor pool about our departure time that resulted in a delay of about an hour, I think. No problem, really, but it would have been nice to have arrived at the house before dark. The drive up to Jasper went pretty smoothly with a stop at the Bates House of Turkey and of course Buckees along the way. It was dark when we arrived at the gate, and then the fun began. I was driving at the time. There was a mile or two of narrow winding and very hilly road between us and the house that definitely made it interesting. Then, when we got to the end of the road there was an impossibly steep drive down to the house from a conveniently located trailhead. Ben was already there and suggested we park at the trailhead with the big vans since it was questionable if we'd be able to get them back up the hill. In fact we spun the tires a couple of times just trying to park the beast.

The house itself was very nice, as one would expect, with a beautiful view of the mountains, a full kitchen, outdoor deck, hot tub, pool table, etc. Everyone got situated eventually, so I nobody needed to sleep on the couch, which actually wouldn't have been uncomfortable at all. 

Saturday morning we headed out to Dahlonega around 9:30 for a 17-mile shakeout ride with 1,500 ft of climbing. It was the same route we'd used last year. It took a solid half hour to unload all of the bikes and get everyone ready to roll. Will dropped his chain and I think had some other bike problem, so I think he turned back early. Otherwise the ride went well and I felt quite good. I was very worried about having a repeat of the breathing problems I'd had in NC a month earlier, especially since the forecast for Sunday morning was in the low 50s. I'd already decided to make it an easy ride and avoid any heavy breathing. That actually worked out pretty well, although of course that meant a record slow ride time for me. 

Pinning on numbers 101

After the ride we went over to the high school and picked up packets and wandered around the vendor area where we had a nice visit with Debbie Milne at her Suprabars tent. After driving back to Jasper we hung around for a while before cooking up some pasta and sauce, bread, and garlic shrimp. Then we had a meeting to go over everything for the next day. Anyone doing the full century ride who didn't make it to the turnoff for the three gap route in under two hours was required to turn off and do just the three gap ride so our departure back to NOLA wouldn't be too delayed. I had a hard requirement to be back no later than 2:00 am.

This year they staged the start up near the high school building, which I didn't realize until I'd already started rolling down the hill to where it usually starts. As usual it was crowded with excited riders. The three gap riders where there to collect jackets and stuff from the six gappers, since it was pretty chilly at the start. I was wearing two jerseys and arm-warmers, with a sheet of notebook paper stuffed under the outer jersey. I regretted none of that even though the temperature rose by a good 25 degrees during the ride. There were a lot of New Orleans riders this year. Steve drove up solo and stayed at Ro's house. Charles came up with Calder but made a last minute decision to just do the Three Gap ride. Little Jo, MJ, Nick, Steven, Jason, Michael, Dalton, Mark, and I'm sure a few others were all on hand.

Sunday morning we were up out the door and on the road around 5 am, so we arrived at the parking lot early enough to get a good parking spot, unload and assemble the bikes, and eat some breakfast. For me, that was basically a cup of coffee and a banana. 

Back at the bikes I gathered up everything I'd be bringing. A flask of Hammergel, three or four Gu packets, a little Skratch in the big Tulane water bottle, and plain water in the other bottle. One of the riders was borrowing my backup Garmin for Three Gap, so I got that set up on his bike. I had put a new Conti 5000 on the rear wheel the week before, since the old one was pretty cut up. Tires were inflated to 65-70 psi. as usual. Once we started I gradually slid back until I found riders going the speed I was comfortable with, which in this case was relatively slow. The front of the group was probably five minutes ahead within ten miles, and would ultimately finish over two hours ahead of me at 4:48. If you want to put in a faster finish time on this ride you absolutely have to make the effort in the first 20 miles to stay with the first or second group. Despite the fact that I was obviously going easier on the initial climbs than usual, it didn't really feel a whole lot easier, but on the other hand I never got to the point where I was kind of gasping for breath on the early hills, which is something that I usually struggle with when it's cool and there's a little altitude involved. So anyway, things were going along fairly well, considering. 

The climb up Hogpen, the second of the six, felt just as difficult as usual. It looks like I averaged around 5.7 mph for the steeper section of that, where I might normally have been closer to 7 mph. Somewhere around a third of the way up Hogpen I pulled over where there was a traihead so I could pee, no doubt a result of the chilly weather. I probably hadn't gone a mile past that when I came across Will on the side of the road struggling with his chain. He'd dropped it between the cassette and the spokes. It took a couple of tries to get it back in place, and then a couple of tries to get going again on the 10% grade without having to put a foot down and try again. Dropped chains would turn out to be a problem for him the rest of the ride even though we had intentionally checked limit screws earlier in the week.  Anyway, I finally  came over the top feeling OK and coasted down the other side at 28-44 mph without trying. This was the first year I've ridden Six Gap with the route on my computer and the first time with the newer Garmin. It was nice to have the display showing the upcoming gradients. In addition we'd been given some nice stickers to put on the top tube that showed the mileage at the tops of the climbs.

For much of the rest of the ride I found myself surprisingly alone. I guess that's one drawback of hanging back at the start. On the plus side, the weather was great and I could enjoy some of the scenery without staring at someone's rear wheel. It wasn't until the last five miles or so that a three-rider group came by that I could get in with. So in the end I was kind of unhappy to have gone so slowly (official time was 7:10) but on the plus side I was never in any kind of difficulty, the Cervelo handled its first Six Gap flawlessly, and I wasn't any more toasted by the end than usual, which is to say I was pretty damn well toasted. As usual, my neck and upper back were the main problems. My lower back seemed to tolerate this year's ride surprisingly well. I think I spent more time standing on the climbs than usual this year, which may have helped in that regard.

Most of the other riders had good rides. Ben and Liam were both well under 6 hours, which was excellent, and Michael and Jao were well under seven. We did have a couple of casualties. Dylan misjudged a downhill turn when he had to change his line because of a car. He ended up in the ditch with a bent derailleur hanger and some fairly minor road rash, so wasn't able to finish. Mary, who was doing the Three Gap ride, had a broken shifter cable somewhere along the way and therefore had to get a ride back. Austin was the last to roll in with a time of just over nine hours.

I think it was probably around 4:30 by the time we were all packed up, gassed up, and hit the road for home. We had been hoping for an earlier departure, but would still be able to make it back before the 2 am deadline. It was as usual a long drive with sore legs. The absolute worst thing you can do after a ride like this is to jump into a car and sit there for nine hours without moving. I was at the wheel for most of it once we got past Atlanta, following Ben in the other Biology van. The drive back was thankfully uneventful, and by the time I took the last sip of the huge Red Bull I'd gotten earlier we were around Mobile. I got dropped off at home around 1:30 am or so. Naturally I woke up at 5:30 am, but knew better than to go out to the 6 am group ride. Instead, I waited a couple of hours and did an easy small-chainring ride on the levee just to keep my legs from totally rusting up. It's Tuesday evening right now and my quads still hurt when I go down stairs, my neck hurts, and my back hurts. So situation normal I guess.