North Georgia revisited

Ccup and I arrived in Dahlonega on Friday evening and checked into the Super8.....I know..blame it on our cheap ass sponsors. After a short nap we decided to go into town to find some food and spirits. Dahlonega was full of posh little places that ,I suppose, are fueled by Atlanta folks that have weekend cabins in the near by mountains, but Curtis and I settled in on the local Italian/American dive bar.

After a quick scan, we realized that they had the basic liquids for a cyclist survival. Fat tire and PBR on tap. After we found our spot at the bar ,the first thing that we found humorous was that the bartender "Really!" had his nose buried in a "Bar tending for dummies" book. The beer was good and the food was ok. I don't know what it is about the North GA mountains? Looking back to my May of 2010 post about Helen.....well..... The locals started to creep into the pub. I haven't watched any fashion TV lately but I doubt that plaid is the new sexy for 2011. Then out of no where, the disco ball dropped from the ceiling and the karaoke was warming up. Ccup and I made a quick escape. Ccup commented that North Ga could rival some of Alabama's finest rednecks any day. Honestly, I fit in pretty darn well.




The next morning came early. We spared ourselves the Super 8 breakfast and chose oatmeal instead. We fumbled our way to the vineyard with poor directions and somehow found our target. The funny thing is that 5 cars with bikes followed us, having no idea how lost we were. Registration was sloppy. But we finally got suited up and ready to go. The race started out with a nasty cross course and a 100 yard run/crawl up. It then made it to the North Ga forest and instantly started an 8 mile climb straight up a dirt road. At some point most of the peleton was walking. This was Hell on Earth. After a long descent, there was another 5 mile climb followed by an uncountable amount of 500 yard climbs. And then finaly a possible deadly downhill. The weather was great which made the very very long 50 mile day tolerable. I finished on my single in 5 hours and 10 minutes. The course ended with another cross course and a 300 foot crawl up with MGD hand offs.Ccups heart rate monitor said 3600 calories burned. I am pretty sure that this was the toughest day I have had on the bike. It was somehow satisfying to see people with gears still limping in an hour and a half later as we headed home.