I recently found myself in the position of having to take a day off from work because I had bounced into the maximum amount of vacation time I am allowed. So I asked myself, ?self, what am I going to do with this day off?? To which self replied, ?you could go try the 6 gap ride solo?. Seemed like a good idea, so at 4:30am I hit the road for a 2 hour drive to Brandon, VT. There is a campground on Lake Dunmore I?ve wanted to check out after the ride, so this is where the ride began. At 6:30 I headed down rt53 for a several mile warm up before hitting Middlebury Gap. It was a chilly 52 degrees to start. I figured it would be better to shiver for awhile rather than deal with carrying arm warmers and a wind vest all day long. The pace to Middlebury was very modest, making sure I did not use too much too early. The spin up Middlebury was very casual and pleasant taking full advantage of my 28 tooth cog even when it felt too easy. The decent off Middlebury was cold and fast. All gravel sections from last year?s floods have been repaved making for a smooth ride. A quickie stop to top off the Gatorade (very cute girl at the register) at the bottom and I am off to Granville Gulf. This is easily one of my favorite sections of the ride. Waterfalls, moss covered ledges and mountain streams gives you a lot to think about other than turning the cranks. Before I know the turn to Lincoln gap appears before me. Up the initial climb and across the dirt flats gets you good and tenderized for what lies ahead. When the road turn towards the sky I instantly gear all the way down and settle in to a steady slow cadence. Many things go through your head on this climb, none of them are very pleasant. The last mile was as hard as ever, especially the three times you think you are on the last corner only to find the top is still far out of reach. Get to the top and find it totally deserted. On our labor day rides there have always been a crowd of people at the top either looking at us with admiration or stupid confusion. So I just motored along and began the adventurous gravel decent. It was made even more adventurous by the fact that the road was freshly graded, and by fresh I mean within the last hour. There had been maybe two cars on the road since it had been fluffed up so nicely. I did my best to stay in the 6 inch wide packed path made by these cars, not always successfully. It felt like riding the mountain bike in snow, but the consequences off messing up would not be nearly as funny. Finally reach the pavement still in one piece and fly the rest of the way down. Another Gatorade stop (and another cute female) and it is off to the App Gap. Just like last year, a decent tail wind helped push me up this hill without having to redline. Once again the summit is met with no fanfare, just an empty parking area. The ride down to Waitsfield goes smooth and fast, now it is lunch time. Had a really good curried chicken wrap at the Easy Street Caf?. I thought the menu read ?currier chicken wrap? at first, so this was the obvious choice. After a 20 minute break stuffing my face it is off to Warren, over what is the roughest section of road on this ride. Up until now everything was familiar from previous rides, but a left in Warren lead to a new adventure up Roxbury gap. This climb is not too bad overall. About a mile on either side of the summit is gravel, but in really good shape. Now 6 hours into the ride I am at the top of gap #4 with a great view of the top of App Gap. At the bottom it is time for more Gatorade and a chance to check out the next cute girl. Apparently all the good looking ones work in the country stores around here. Now I am facing a 20 mile stretch of mostly flat roads to Rochester Gap. This section solo had me nervous before the ride, but areobars and a nice tailwind soothed all fears. Averaged around 22mph with minimal effort and cross the century mark on this stretch. Rochester turned out to be mentally the hardest of the climbs. The last couple miles are fairly steep and the predicted warm temps had finally kicked in. This would be the darkest moment of the ride for me and the summit arrived with a great feeling of relief. Bomb down to our normal start point in Brandon and grab one more bottle of go juice. I left the store thinking I had seen the cutest girl yet, but delirium may have been altering my sense of judgment at this point. Brandon is the easiest of the gaps and I was very happy by that fact. Also nice was the KOM countdowns painted on the road for the Green Mountain Stage Race. Even though there was still 5 miles to go from the top, I knew that they were all fast downhill to the car. 8 hours and 25 minutes after I left the car I am back and still alive. No cramps, no bonks and no mechanicals made this ride a complete success.

I will get some pictures up shortly.
 
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A six gap solo ride in one day is quite the epic event. Congratulations and to think you were able to end it by coming home to the cutest girl of the day makes it even better.

So I guess this is also your flimsy excuse for not showing up for the Coit up/down hill event?

I thought about the Coit climb when deciding whether or not to do this. For me it is more fun to ride a moderate pace for hours than racing for minutes with a lung hanging out, so the gaps won out. I'll get out there sometime in the next week and get a time in. You can bet that time will not start with a 15 though.
 
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Yes his time was crazy. We are still rounding up all the wild life in Town that he scared out of the woods with that blazing time.

So take that Greg!

Kudos to you Brian.

solo 6 gap ride. That sounds like it would have darn near ended my season. Good job Brian. I am interested in what you can get up Coit.

Greg, you would probably catch some air over the top of these hills as fast as you are climbing.

Pics of the scenery and my bike are up. Not much of me for some reason, though I did manage to make it into one shot.

[url]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album10[/url]
 
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One could say Brian's bike had a rather nice ride by itself.

No wonder Brian is so good, his bike trains twice as hard as he does.

Ryan

I decided to venture out on this ride today. Same report as Brian except I started and finished in Rochester. Yes, Rochester gap was absolutely terrible, and being at mile 125 made it even worse. I could barely turn my 28 tooth over. All in all, one heck of a painful day in the saddle. No where near Brian's time. Mine was about 10hrs total time including my many stops. Happy I have this one out of the way finally.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Now that the fog has lifted from my brain (not the legs though, uggh), I have a couple little additions. There were a ton of people out on bikes during my ride, all climbing these mountains in the opposite direction and most of them made the comment "I see your climbing it from the easy side..*wink wink* good job". I swear the locals drew up the route on the website and then laugh at the people that actually do it in that direction. Second, this ride, even at a relaxed pace, is much harder and more painful than Shenandoah or 12hr solo at 24HOGG. I'm pretty sure I have never had to dig that deep before.

-- Ken
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Quote about Rochester Gap. I was actually thinking the whole "I hope I don't have to go over that ridgeline!" I guess I should have paid more attention to the website before hand.

Rochester Gap
If you?re like me, you?ve been running on fumes in the tank for the last 20 miles and now it?s time to tackle the last gap. This one starts innocuous enough, climbing a gentle grade the first four miles. But you keep getting glimpses of a ridgeline that looms way up above, and you think to yourself you sure hope you don?t have to go over that. Well, you do. After about four miles of gentle climbing, the grade turns seriously steep for a couple miles before leveling off at the top, gaining about 1000ft in two miles. This gap doesn?t have as crisp of a top. It kind of wraps around a mountain peak, offering some great open views to the south. One year a thunderstorm moved through the area and we caught a glimpse of a rainbow from up top. The descent is quite good, with one small climb half way down. Let out a whoop when you get to the bottom, you just conquered The Six Gaps!
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Come on Ken, do a proper report. None of this "same report as Brian" garbage. This is a big ride that deserves more than being buried at the bottom of a 3 year old report.
 
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OK, I will do a proper report tonight. Thanks for the slap on the wrist Brian.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Did anyone actually see him do this? How do we know he's not making the entire thing up? I think he should go out with a Garmin or GPS phone and properly post the ride. Brian even had pictures.

I have pictures. They will be getting uploaded tonight, with my official report.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Be suspicious if there is a yellow bike in the pictures.
 
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Photoshop
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini

Now you have the report of my D-Day.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini