Southeast - Going to Rome Ga....

Hey guys and gals...

My wife and I will be making our yearly pilgrimage down to Rome for a couple weeks in late May. We know our way around the town, where the good eats are and have a nice warm bed to sleep in (southern hospitality, but that's a whole other story).

For the last couple years we've mainly ridden with groups from the CVCA and plan on doing that again, but we'd like to also get in some real honest to goodness climbing...Something we don't have here in Southern Ontario...Now I'm not talking Brasstown Bald or anything like that, but stuff that will really challenge us and not kill us. Is there anything within a 60 minute drive or will we be looking farther out??

I know our hosts will have ideas, and he will act as a very good tour guide, but I also want to be able to head out on our own without having to impose on him....He does have a job :)...

Thanks,
Rich

There are a couple of good 1-2 mile climbs in the Rome area. Have the CVCA groupe lead you to Horn Mt and Little Sand Mt. There are a couple others that I cant remember the names. Also just 20 minutes up the road in Summerville Ga, there is Lookout Mt. There are a couple of climbs up Lookout, one of the tougher is Daughtery Gap. Again the CVCA group know all the big climbs in the area

Cartersville has some good rides that might meet your requirements. Here's the link to the routes from the Beautiful Backroads Century: http://hugeelvis.tripod.com/id3.html .

Try Fouche Gap Road. It runs from Big Texas Valley to Huffaker. Also try to retrace the "Tour De Ga" route thru Rome.

We did Fouche Gap the last time we were there and it is on my list...I just can't remember if we did it all the way up to Big Texas or not....I was following wheels so I wasn't really paying attention to where we were going...BTW that is the type of climbing I'm talking about! Around here we don't have an extended climbs like that with switchbacks. The largest climb here is about 400', and generally pick a line that gives you a 4%-8% grade and off they go...

Try www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ga/rome..

Google on Fort Mountain, Ga, a state park is there and access is
out of Resaca just off I75. A somewhat longish loop over Fort Mtn
and back to Resaca via Ellijay ought to give you some climbing. I
did some of that last year in April as part of Heart of the South. Of
course there is a big ridge west of Rome within a mile or so of the
state line, Fourche Gap being one of the routes that climbs this
ridge, which extends all the way upto Chattanooga and gets
higher as one goes north. Fort Mtn park will be busier over week
ends so trip there might better be done during the week.

There are several routes in the Mentone, AL area, which is about 40 miles from Rome. Several teams from the B'ham area hold training camps up there. If you start and finish a ride in Mentone you can get several climbs and miles depending on which route you take, just remember if you start there you have to finish with a climb.

Hmmmm....Assault on Mt. Mitchell and Marion is on the first Monday we are in town....

I know I can't do Mitchell, but Marion sounds tempting...How tough is the ride, climbing wise...

We did the Up the Creek a few years back (the full century) and had a great time...

One of the reasons we are thinking of doing it is because our host will be doing Mitchell, he actually was top ten a couple years back...