Training Camp Part II

Sunday morning started very early with a lot of squawking, meowing and knocking. Have I gone nuts? No. The squawking I’m referring to is from the geese that hang out at the pond near the cabin I was staying at. For some reason they don’t have any respect for people sleeping and randomly let out collective fits of noise through the night. The meowing would be the very friendly black cat that would show up the door whenever we got in. Each night we’d let it in and it would curl up on the couch and stay cozy and quiet all night. For some reason it decided to play all night, howl and knock something around that sounded like a refrigerator. Kitty was evasive the first two times I tried to coax it outside so I could get some sleep. Persistence paid off the third time though. However that unfortunately wasn’t all I was in store for. Starting at around 6am a woodpecker starting pecking the heck out of our log cabin. At least it was on my cabin mate Brandon’s side. Smart guy brought earplugs while I expected to be away from all those loud city noises. I guess I was.

Bleary eyed I packed my stuff and dragged my bones out to the team car Brandon hijacked to get us to our offsite cabins. It was a cold morning, frost covered everything. We went back to meet with the rest of the team and have breakfast at our favorite hang out, the Hiker Hostel. After feasting on pancakes, eggs, grits, oatmeal, fruit, biscuits and coffee, the team kitted up and headed out to R-Ranch to meet with a local group headed up by the owner of Dahlonega Wheel Works, Jon Dalman.

Meeting up with the locals at R Ranch

The ONLY semi flat stretch in the area. Well maybe not, but it sure seems that way.

We did a relatively small loop back around to the R-Ranch again, maybe a little over an hour and that’s where I broke off. It was either that or continue on to do 6 gap which this Austinite could not have trained enough for in a year, especially with my work schedule, and at their pace! Don’t get me wrong, Austin has its share of hills, but they aren’t bunched all together in a relentless onslaught of climbs of these lengths like they are here.

Neels Gap - 3,094 ft
Jacks Gap - 2,958 ft
Unicoi Gap - 2,941 ft
Hogpen Gap - 3,454 ft
Wolfpen Gap - 3,320 ft
Woody Gap - 3,159 ft

When I got back to the Hiker Hostel I had enough time to defrost, break my bike down and pack it, eat, and then off I went to be dropped off at the MARTA. This is Atlanta’s Rail system that would take me from the north side of the city down to the south side airport. I think it was Bill Cosby who said something about there being a show in every car, but maybe he was talking about New York? Regardless of locale I was treated to a 3 part show, all seemingly to have been carefully orchestrated so that at no time was there a lull of boredom between stops. The best of which was a guy wearing clearly new clothes and decent shoes claiming to be homeless and asking everyone for money. That show came to a stop when one elderly woman came on board and called the guy out. “You’re not homeless!” she said with disdain, “I know your grandmother and she would not be happy with what you’re doing!” The cat played it cool until the next stop and then he quickly exited stage left.

All in all the trip was fantastic. If I haven’t said so already I think that Toshiba-Santo Pro Cycling Team presented by Herbalife is an amazing squad with great talent and an equally dedicated director and staff. Rocket Science Sports is proud to be a supplier for the team and we look forward to a very successful season.

Cheers!