For the Third and final time this year we headed down to Dalton, GA to take on The Snake Creek Gap 6 Mtn Time Trial. The March race in my history of participating has provided great conditions and one of the better atmospheres for racing of the three months that the race takes place. There was also snow on the ground and the temperature had been in the single digits when we were loading up the New River Bikes suburban so I was pretty excited to be heading south. With promises of temperatures in the 50’s, no snow, and really no precipitation in the forecast we were all excited. We pulled into Dalton around 4:00 pm on Friday got checked into the hotel and made a quick run over to the local bike shop, Bear Creek Bikes, to do some heckling and pick up a few provisions for the race Saturday.
The guys all decided to go do a little spin on the course to shake out the car legs. For Andy and I it was also an opportunity to see what some of the course would be like riding it in the opposite direction of the race, which is the direction we’ll be riding it in August when we’re about 271 miles into the Trans North Georgia Adventure. After riding up the gravel road I’m normally descending at 40+ miles an hour I realized that by August I should be real comfortable pushing my bike since that’s what I’ll be doing at that point…Anyhow, Jonathan, Ryan, Andy, and I rode out the course about a mile or two and just goofed around picking various unsavory lines through the rocks trying to see who could clear what along with some general taunting.
I had some general concerns about the race heading into it, first off I was going to be riding a rigid bike for the first time in many years on terrain that is anything but smooth. I had also taken 10 days off the bike for the honeymoon, it was well worth it but we were back to bike racing now so it was still 10 days off. I had started to feel a little bit of a chest cold come on over the last day or two creating a sore throat and some other annoying symptoms. Lastly I was 3 minutes away from catching Andy presumably 3-4 minutes out of making 4th place in the SS category, which meant regardless of how I felt I was going to be pushing myself until I couldn’t see straight.
Saturday morning rolled around and we were already checked in so all we had to do was find our way to the starting line. The race is a point to point race so the finish line isn’t where the start line is, it’s actually about 45 mins away and the race organizers generally shuttle all of the participants in a bus with all of the bikes on trailers. The past two months we’ve started in the back of the pack and had to pass our way through most of the field on singletrack. We were bound and determined not to do that again so Andy did some talking with the Bear Creek Bikes folks and got us into their shuttle group. That plan only seemed to partially work as we still ended up in the middle of the pack instead of all the way in the back. Oh well, we’re here to race so might as well pass some people.
There had been rumors floating around that the organizers had put together a rolling bridge for the creek crossing that comes at mile 2. This creek crossing is almost always the big talking point for people doing the 34 mile option, how high is it? What strategy will you use to get across? And on and on, it has really become a big part of the race. My feeling on the bridge was that it should come with a time penalty, the creek is part of what makes the snake the snake, what makes it epic. I thought all of this until I rolled up on the bridge and saw they had put it right in the best line to cross, screw it, I hit the bridge wide open and wheelied off the end to stay completely dry and not lose a second of time.
Rolling off the line I never felt special but the first half of the race went as expected, riding most of it with Jonathan and Ryan we worked our way up through the minefield of riders, down the sketchy gravel descent, back up to the ridge, along the ridge, then back down the crazy descent to the Snake Creek gap parking lot and the halfway point. We had sent a full water bottle to the halfway point so I discarded my empty bottle picked up the full one along with a few fig newtons and got on my way. Climbing up to the ridge from the Snake Creek Gap parking lot is always a fun climb. It switches back multiple times, has a pretty solid grade, and in general is just a nice place to create some separation. I stood up to try and put some space in between myself and Jonathan however I was quickly informed by my legs that was not going to happen right now. So I sat back down and kept a steady pace up the climb and down the backside of the mountain which is a fairly smooth descent and one of the most fluid in the race. We hit the bottom and Jonathan decided it was his time to attack as he was sporting gears and could get away from me on the flatter area. I had a plan so I just went ahead and let him go, I needed to eat anyhow.
At this point there is a nice gravel road climb up to the last aid station that marks 8 miles left in the race, many people consider this the halfway point as the last 8 miles are a killer. Well I use the gravel road climb as a chance to get some food and water and then generally pick up a few more passes. At this point I passed Ryan and picked up a group of singlespeeders, one of whom I recognized as the guy who was a few minutes in front of me in the standings. Change of plans, don’t lose this guy, I had caught him from behind and it took a while so I was assuming I had a few minutes on him for the day but really didn’t want to chance it. I also didn’t feel like I had much left in the tank and my legs were starting to let me know their displeasure with my requests for more power. The other single speeder and I went back and forth for a while and picked our way through the rock gardens, walking the wall, until he pulled away for a few minutes. I had already passed Jonathan while he was working on fixing a flat so he was behind me and I hadn’t seen Andy in a while, so assuming catching him was out of the picture it was time to get the SSer. Standing and cranking was hardly an option as the cramps were knocking on the door, so it was time to sit and spin, stay smooth, pick good lines, slowly reel him in. I managed to pull him in pretty close by the time we hit the radio towers. From there it is pretty much all downhill and wide open. Well he was clearly a little heavier than I am as I watched the gap open just slightly, hoping for a big guy on a geared bike to magically appear and give me a pull, I tucked as low as I could but couldn’t catch him. Hopping the curb, hit the final approach to the finish put my head down and crossed the line at 3:20:44, almost 10 mins faster than last month and enough to put me in 5th place SS, still 5 mins behind Andy but I’ll take it. On a day where I never really felt like I was all that strong it was a pretty good finish
