The descent off Hogpen was deceptively fast-most riders were easily going 50+. I wound up with a car in front of me about half ways down so I had to back off a little but they wound up waiving me around. Unfortunately a female crashed on the descent and as I recall later died.
jppe,
That's true - the woman was a member of the club I belong to, and since the club is in South Florida, she had very little to no experience at riding mountain roads, and perhaps because of that the situation (excessive speed) caused her to not brake properly (perhaps too much at the wrong times in the descent), overheating the rims and causing a blowout (from what they found with the tire) which caused the crash, so, a word of advice that this century is for the cyclist of an advanced skill level who has at least some level of experience when it comes to very steep ascents and descents - don't forget that these are the same roads used during the Tour de Georgia stages, so they are mountain roads suited for the professional cyclist...
The female rider spoken of rode with the fast weekend peletons, but with the exception of our local highway bridges and a few rolling hills in Central Florida (Mount Dora) actually had no experience in a mountain setting - years ago I found the same true when attending an LAW (now LAB) GEAR rally in the Shenandoah Valley - mountain roads do take a certain level of skill to ride safely (we also had one rider go down on a downhill, but fortunately it was at a much slower speed and she only had some road rash)...
I really got some static (on the safety board) when this was brought up after the Hogpen accident (lots of under 30 cyclists on that board who consider only excessive speeds to be fun), but it's the same for airplane pilots, skiiers, mountain climbers and divers - what the person is attempting should at least come close to matching their skill level - a certain level of challenge is good, but anything beyond that is dangerous if they are not prepared for it...
So, enjoy - but be mindful of your skill level, and don't be ashamed to brake at the start of the downhill (which won't overheat the rims), to keep the speed further down the mountain to a safe level - better to have a 18 mph downhill start peak at 50, than to have a 30 mph start peak at a dangerous 60 or higher - even the Tour de France guys are barely holding on at those speeds...
Frank