I put my bike up for sale on the first day of May Madness, after riding 250 miles from Augusta, GA in 16 hours, 45 minutes. Not a good sign for my May Madness Adventures. But heck. The only energy I had left after that ride was to hold my cell phone in my shaking hands and clumsily tweet the bike sale.
But by Tuesday I was feeling OK and then by Wednesday, I was ready to rock and roll! Yep. I’m back in the saddle again and fired up for this Saturday’s 257-mile course.
Quite different from last Saturday’s flat and gentle rollers, this Saturday’s ride begins just outside of the North Georgia Mountains. If it’s like in year’s past, we’ll roll out at a conversation pace, catching up with each other’s training, goals, etc. before the climbing frenzy begins in Dahlonega. As soon as the Wal-Mart sign appears on the right, there’s a downhill followed by climbing for the next eight miles or so on “Wal-Mart Gap” (an unofficial gap, but still a climb) and continuing up Woody’s Gap.
Next up are Wolfpen Gap (three-mile climb), Jack’s Gap (five-mile climb) and Unicoi Gap (two-mile climb with a fun six-mile descent!). Then from there we’re heading to the some climbing and rollers near and around Lake Burton, then Clayton, then War Woman Road (yes, that’s the actual name of the road). By this point, I will be 118 miles into the ride and ready (hopefully) to tackle the 12-mile climb to Highlands, NC.
Then I’ll head to South Carolina, then back into Georgia in Toccoa, Demorest, Clermont and back to Dahlonega with more climbing and a slight uphill back to the finish. And how could I forget one of the steepest climbs on the whole ride? Belton Bridge Road. It’s a short, steep climb that occurs somewhere around 218 miles. When I did this climb a few weeks ago, the pain and suffering only lasted two minutes, eight seconds. But this time I will be climbing that at night! So it’ll feel like eight minutes, two seconds!
As with all of my rides, my goal is to finish it faster than in year’s past. So here are my previous finish times:
2006 – 23 hours, 10 minutes – got caught in rain, thunder, lightning and hail sometime around 1 a.m. and took shelter for several hours in Wal-Mart
2007 – Still scared from last year’s chaos, I opted out of this ride
2008 – 22 hours, 54 minutes – got lost as hell!
2009 – 21 hours, 41 minutes – finally had a ride with no issues
So the goal for Saturday…20 hours (or less!). My plan is to ride consistently, stop briefly and get this dang ride done so I can continue to a break in May Madness with an easy weekend next weekend.
Wish me luck!
