Fifty Plus (50+) - Six Gap by the numbers

My brother and I drove down to Dahlonega Ga in spite of gasoline being very hard to find to do the Six Gap Century that was today. Weather was perfect. I really enjoyed the route as there was tons of climbing but nothing too steep. I have not downloaded my data but I'm sure this ride had the least amount of flats of any century I've done. You were either going up or going down.

The descents were just terrific. They were very long and while there were lots of curves, there were very few curves where you needed to even do much braking........unless cars were in front of you.

My time was not very good but I took the first 60 miles really easy as I was very apprehensive about a steady 3 mile climb at the 57 miles mark that sounded really steep. It probably ranged from 10-14% for at least 3 miles.

I sure wish I had these roads in my back yard. Some great riding.

Total miles ----- 103.9
Climbing feet------- 11, 045
Gaps climbed ------- 6
Saddle time ------- 6 hr 52 mins
Stop time----- 7 mins
# Stops ----- 2
Food eaten ------- 2 1/2 bananas
Fluids------ 4-24 ounce bottles
Avg HR ----138 (normally about 145 but I took it very easy the first 60 miles )
# of cars passed----- 1 (hey they waved me around on one of the descents)
% Gas Stations without gas----- 95+%
# Cramps------ Zero this ride.........Hooray!!
# Hours Sleep 2 nights prior to the ride------Total of 7 for both nights (surely I'll sleep more tonight)
First 50 miles------3 hours 0 mins
Last 54 miles------3 hrs 59 mins



Blues Dawg-I looked at the entrance road to Brasstown at the top of Jack's Gap as I was riding by.........my goodness.




http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa36/jppe/SixGapCentury2008.jpg

Congrats on another great result.

Not very good? Come on, 7 hours for an 11,000 foot century is a fantastic time!

I really enjoyed the route as there was tons of climbing but nothing too steep.

UMMM, your kidding right? Or did you skip Hogpen Gap?

I've ridden much longer climbs but not many nearly as steep except of course Brasstown Bald as you mentioned.

My saddle time was 7 hours 3 minutes. Paced myself well enough that I was able to really blast the last 15 miles. Di eat too much at the Hogpen sag and paid for it on Wolfpen but was still able to set a decent pace.

No cramps, No long sag stops, not enough gears though(had 12-25 and needed 12-27)

Not too bad for a 200 lb rider. Fun watching all the squirrels run up the hills like they are on a flat.

Did you GPS the ride?

Did you GPS the ride?


I did GPS the ride with my Garmin 305. I was just now able to download the elevation profile and substituted the profile in the original post with what I had pulled from the web (see above).

Was there anything else you were interested in? Here is some more nos:

Avg Cadence-78
% Distance Ascending---33.1%
% Time Ascending---54.6%
Time Ascending--3hr 50 mins

I also looked at the percent distance that was flat and I was really surprised to see it at 30%. It sure didn't feel like there were 30 miles of flats!!