4 Gap - Sufferfest 2008

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Ride Photos

Following our Memorial Day ride I was informed about possibly doing a 3 gap ride the next weekend. Sometime during the week the ride information came out in an email from Gary and Peter and the ride was titled "Sufferfest."

This 3 gap ride is a love hate kind of thing for me. It is only the second time I have tried this route that starts from Helen, Georgia and heads directly toward one of the toughest climbs in Georgia, which is Hogpen gap. However, to be a true sufferfest Peter and/or Gary decided to throw in a climb up Neels gap and then return to the normal route and finish with Jacks and Unicoi gaps.

Again we had a great group of riders, but too many to list all the names and a few new faces. Pretty much everyone seemed fairly strong on the climbs, but I know a couple of the guys were having an off day. For me I suppose it was an okay day even though I thought it would be a day of struggling since my knees felt a little tender all week. Perhaps the amount of climbing we have done lately has fatigued a number of us, but anyway compared to last year it was a much better ride. Last year I stopped about a mile short of the Hogpen summit, but this time, though it was discomforting, I managed to slug my way to the top. One other thing that may be necessary for a sufferfest is to have a solid stream of sweat running into your eyes to the point of being blinded and horse flys buzzing your head, as if the climb was not hard enough alone. I was a bit nervous for a while and hated the thought of stopping to clear my eyes from the stinging sweat, but I managed to make it to the peak. Descending Hogpen was fun, but I was a little cautious because the roads were still a little damp from an early morning rain.

Neels Gap climb was pretty fun. I just settled into a pace near Edgar and Gary with the tunes playing on the shuffle. The gradient was not too bad and I increased my pace a little toward the top. My legs felt a little shakey, but after a brief stop at the top we turned and descended the same roadway. Although I was still a nervous descending confidence was returning so I tried not to feather the brakes as much and had a really encouraging downhill ride. We did a store stop near the bottom and prepared for the last two climbs.

Climbing Jacks was not bad, but now I could start feeling the fatigue in my legs so again I settled down my pace for a short period and then was able to pick the pace back up toward the summit. The descent on Jacks was pretty fun and I knew there was one more climb between us and the parking lot. Fortunately we only had a little more than 2 miles from the base of Unicoi to the summit and then about 10 miles of downhill into Helen. I made a descision not to hammer up Unicoi as my knees was starting to hurt a little more, but I was really looking forward to the long descent, which was my first real desire to up the speed a little more since my crash. The road coming down that side of Unicoi back into to Helen is very twisty at the top and somewhat steep in sections so I had to let gravity do it's thing since the gearing on the bike was not going to let me pedal unless I could manage to spin at 140+ rpm's. Toward the bottom it flattens out a little and I noticed Mike and Gary making a push to catch Peter and David. I thought this might me a good area to test my legs out so I also joined in on the chase. Next thing I know it was me and David racing toward Helen. I am not sure if anyone was behind us and didn't have time to look back because David was keeping me busy trying to keep up with him. When we reached Helen the traffic was backed up from tourist like normal, but I know the guys I was with at that time had to be relieved to know the parking lot was just ahead a few hundred feet.

It was only a 54 mile ride, but in my opinion it may have been as hard as the 3 State 3 Mountain century in some ways. The route today had 6,000 elevation gain in 54 miles compared to 3 State's 7,000 in 100 miles and if you removed Burkhalter from the comparison today's sufferfest ride almost made me suffer more than 3 State.

Thanks to Peter and Gary for arranging the ride and thanks to Edgar for driving us to Helen and back. I know that was a long drive back for a pretty tired guy.

Maybe we can do it again next weekend. But hopefully NOT!!!!!
But it will be interesting to see what ride will be arranged for next weekend since Gary, Mike and a few others have the Cherohala Challenge coming soon. If I could throw in my opinion you guys need to give yourself a break before Cherohala and doing something flat and easy. Just kidding!!!