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Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Fools Gold 50/100 Report
By: Ted Hollander
Hey all,
Thought I'd post a quick post race report. A few friends and I headed up to Dahlonega this past weekend for the 5th annual Fools Gold 50 and 100 mile mountain bike race.
The race is the second to last stop in the National Ultra Endurance Series, a coast to coast series of super tough long distance events. There were racers there from all across the country, with the field at approximately 380 riders. I was entered in the 50 mile race, and shared the starting line with almost 200 other riders. After the gun we were motor paced 4 miles to the start of the first big climb of the day, a tough gravel road ascent up to Cooper's Gap of about six miles, followed by a steep, loose gravel descent. From there we headed toward Bull Mountain, where we were treated to a series of steep single track climbs and twisty downhills with additional fire road sections and stream crossings interrupting the perfect single track sections.I felt very strong throughout the first 2/3 of the race, but battled intermittent leg cramps from there on. The cramps, plus a couple of bone headed mistakes while on the home stretch dropped me from 4th to 6th place in my class, thus keeping me off of the 5 deep podium by 37 seconds. I'm disappointed with that, but my guess is that the guys ahead of me suffered their share as well. It took me 5 hours and 3 minutes to complete the race, climbing approximately 7000 feet in the process.
All in all, it was a fantastic event on a very challenging race course. By comparison, my 6 GAP experiences (while not a race of course) were pretty much a cake walk. Most amazing of all were the times turned in by the top pro's in the 100 mile event. Incredible. Check out the series and the race at the Cycling News:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-fools-gold-100-ne/results
Ted Hollander
Florida Masters
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