Eddie O

I’m finally riding again! I didn’t plan to take such a long break after nationals, but since I am not doing any more major races this season I sort of lost the motivation to get out in heat & humidity or the afternoon thunder storms. The bug finally bit me again I needed to ride. I was getting that sluggish feeling that too long away from the bike will give you and I do not like that feeling at all. Namrita and I did an easy road ride around town on Saturday evening which was nice way to get the legs going again. We met up with local cyclo-cross stud Jamie Pair and cruided through a few neighborhoods and downtown.

On Saturday we rode up the Mountaintown trail in Ellijay. Typically most folks, myself included, ride up the Bear Creek trail, turn up the fire road and then across the ridge to descend Mountaintown. For some reason Namrita wanted to try to go up, so up we went. It’s about a 2000 foot climb over 7.5 miles of trail. It’s very gradual and not very technical for the first half and then it really tilts upward and the rocks begin to stack up. We picked our way along, but that second half really hurt. I think a less demanding route would have been a little better after my lack of riding lately…..but here I am complaining (inwardly) and Namrita is riding her single-speed! She is getting really strong this summer. We both pushed up a couple of the sections, but she really impressed me grinding up the steeps on that rig.

Sunday we headed up to my coach’s place in Dahlonega to do a road ride. We met a couple of his friend’s, Gary & Lorne, who driven up from FL for the weekend. We all headed out together, but they weren’t up for big climbs. After an hour or so they delivered us the base of Hogpen Gap road (I tried to find an elevation profile for these climbs, but could not…so let’s lust say they are big). It took about an hour to climb up to the top and again Namrita impressed. She could quite keep up, but held her own just fine. The descent is sick fast! 55 mph is very easy to hit if you stay off the brakes in the straights. I rounded one corner though and thought I was done for. Here I am barreling out of the turn at about 40 mph only to look down the road to see some idiot in a car passing another car on there way up. We had less than a 1/4 mile to work with. I eyed the grass to my right as my only alternative to giving this jerk a flying elbow through the windshield. Luckily he ducked back in his lane quickly enough. I really don’t care if you want to kill yourself, but please don’t take me with you.

It’s about 10 miles over to the base of Neal’s Gap and we just cruised. The climb up Neal’s is much easier compared to Hogpen, but still took about 30 mins to ascend. On the downside I chased SUVs through the twisty descent to the amusement of the young’ns in the back seat. From there we rolled back to Josh’s, cleaned up and bid Gary & Lorne a safe journey back to FL.

I ran out for groceries after returning home and when I returned from that trip Harvey & Lauren had arrived. They were returning from the SM100 where Harvey had another successful 100 miler. Gees, I remember the days when he just fell apart after 4 hours and now…well he’s kick’n butt and taken names. We sat around the kitchen table sharing stories and drinking wine. It was a good way to end the weekend.

Eddie O

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