Rodney's Six Gap Century Ride

Rodney Daulton

Hi Team, Well a bucket list ride is in the books??. I finished 104 miles with over 11,000 ft of climbing in the hills of north Georgia and had a great ride with three other friends from my Tri club back home. This certainly wasn't any kind of race, it was a get it done ride for this Florida flat lander with no local riding that could even come close to the climbs that I experienced. So currently I'm training for the Great Floridian 140.6 at the end of October so Coach Rich just had me follow the Intermediate IM plan and it worked out perfect!! Three of the climbs were Cat 2 and I had plenty of leg to just settle in and grind away. I found the power meter to be invaluable for these climbs, I just settled in at zone 3 to occasional low zone 4 numbers and peddled away. I knew from my training rides this would be a very doable effort for the up to 55 minutes it would take to complete the two longer climbs. The ride was well supported and I made sure to get at least 300 calories per hour eating the fruit and drinking the Infinate product they had at the rest stops ( 9 altogether) as the temp climbed to the upper 80s after 11:00 AM. This strategy worked well and I had no cramping issues and had good power numbers all the way to the end. An epic ride in the books for me, now some relaxing and training in Blue Ridge, GA for the week then back home to FL at the end of the week.

Thanks for reading, I would highly recommend this ride for a good cycling challenge ??

Paul Hough

Congrats! That is a ride I would like to do as well, and it sounds like great preparation for the GFT. I libr in Tampa and in May rode the Tour de Georgia Gran Fondo (similar distance and elevation) which covers most of the same climbs at 6 Gap. I've used the GFT for training purposes many times including 3 full aqua bikes and one tri America distance. This year I'll be doing the 2/3rds GFT, but will pull out after one loop of the run since I'm racing MiamiMan two weeks later.

Rodney Daulton

Thanks Paul, Perhaps our paths will cross at the GFT. ??

Scott Renick

Congrats Rodney! I did 6 Gap in 2012 as a FL flatlander and really enjoyed it. I have been wanting to go back but it always coincided with other races. I live ~35 minutes from Clermont so I used those "hills" for training. You're in great shape for GFT...none of those climbs require a sag stop 1/2 way up like Hogpen

David Holmes

Congrats Rodney.  I too started out riding 6 gap.  Sadly my 64 years and 260 pounds missed the cutoff by about 10 minutes and I was reduced to doing the 3 gap.  Always an epic event if you're not from there.  Im hoping that major body comp adjustment will help me cut that 10 off in the next two years.  Plan on doing IM Florida next year so I don't know how 6Gap will fit into the training matrix.  Beautiful place and always a beautiful well organized ride. Even if I am too fat to enjoy all of it.

 

David Holmes

 

Rodney Daulton

Thanks Scott, I too have had difficulty getting to 6 Gap due to conflicts with other races, but this seemed to be a perfect chance to get it done with the GFT coming up ??

Rodney Daulton

Thanks David, Too bad about missing the cut off, actually I was shocked when I got up there and the girl said no problem, you guys made the cut off by ten minutes. That's the closest I've ever come to a cut off in any race/ride so they don't seem to give a guy a lot of time to make the cut off considering the amount of time they give to finish the ride. Good luck with IMFL, I did it back in 2012 and it was a great race??