Day 3, the final day. The alarm went off as expected and there were text messages from Dan D saying the hotel breakfast was available. We had spoken about riding to Mary's which was a few miles down the road. It was a restaurant recommended to us by Brian in his ride report. However, since the hotel breakfast was available, we opted to eat there so we delayed our start time to 5:45. I enjoyed some warm oatmeal as well as english muffins with peanut butter and honey.
As we prepared to leave the hotel, I told everyone that my knees were still hurting and that I planned to take it easy and not push too hard on the final day. In front of us was the Wolfpen Gap climb. The only intermediate control/store was roughly half way between the start and finish at the end of the Wolfpen Gap descent. It was along this stretch that Jeff achieved his K-Hound status for 2021.
During the day, we found we were sharing the route with an organized local ride. We saw markings on the road outlining the route. At some point, we started passing riders going in the other direction. The descent from Wolfpen Gap was a long one, but the road was filled with cars. I got stuck behind a vehicle pulling a trailer and later when they finally passed us, I was braking behind DanD. We eventually made a left turn and Dan went straight thinking he saw DanC up the road. However, this turned out to be one of the other riders out on the course for the local ride. I was then free to tuck and just blast the rest of the way down the descent where I found Jeff and DanC waiting. DanD eventually showed up and we continued down the road.
At the control, we celebrated Jeff's accomplishment.
After this stop, we had about 32 miles to finish the ride. I continued to spin easy and the rest of the riders were ahead of me on the road. There was the chance to stop at Dollar General during this stretch, but my bottles were fine and I felt it was unnecessary to stop. Near the store, I rolled past the group taking a bio break ahead of the store. I thought they would stop, but as I made the turn onto US-129, I noticed the group behind me. They caught up to me shortly and then passed me.
On GA-75, Jeff slowed up and asked me where the store was. He thought it was still ahead of us. We both laughed about the fact that we had passed the store back at the US-129 intersection. The group re-formed as we made the turn on to Ridge Rd and we started to celebrate the fact that we were nearly done. As we got closer to Helen, it as shocking to see the weekend crowds of people. The sleepy, quiet place we left on Thursday morning had turned into a bustling, busy place full of tourists.
We made our way to the final control to get our photo. The finish time was 56 hours 3 minutes. The good news (for me) was I finally saw Michael and chatted with him about the ride. Dan C rode to the hotel he stayed in which was next door to the Circle K to see if we could get a room to shower and dress. Before he left, we took a group photo.
Dan C was able to get us a room. I took my bike over to the hotel and took the bags off. I then rode back to the parking lot where we left the van and prepared to load my bike. As I took off the front wheel, I may have found the answer to the mystery of the hub noise. I saw that the contact prongs were rotated and the cable to the headlamp was stretched. Somewhere along the way, the vibration of the road had caused the hub to slip ever so slightly. This may have been because the quick release lever was not tight enough. Another explanation was I found the bike shop had installed a 2nd spring so that both sides would have one. However, the spring on the lamp side was wedged into the fork and was not providing any valuable function. It could be this that caused the problem. I'll have to test this back home when my knees recover.
Because we finished so early, Jeff and I were able to get cleaned up and the van loaded. We then headed out of town saying goodbye to Helen. We set our sights on Meridian, MS as our destination. We stopped for gas before reaching I-20. On I-20, we searched for and found a Carrabba's in Birmingham that we navigated towards for dinner. Along the way, we talked at length about the ride.
Garmin data: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7552162083
All photos from day.3 here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/FzuyAvkP6PQhodws7
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