Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Best Roads

Over the years I have developed a very specific opinion on what I think a good road is.  Between driving more than any human should, and riding bikes more than many humans drive, I have gained an intimate knowledge of the nuances that go into how much I like a road.  There is one road in Suches, GA that checks almost every box.  Now most people think of the 6 gap loop when they think of road cycling in N. Georgia, but in reality there are over 30 big climbs up there, and most people just never take the turns to get to them.  I will never understand that.  Here is one of those turns:







Now most people will see this and think, 'Oh there is a driveway on the right, wow, I hope we get to the end of this road soon, I need to fuel up before tackling woody's.' There is so much wrong with this mindset. First of all, they are about to pass one of my favorite climbs, the ironically named Flatlands Rd. Second, there are no less than 4 ways to climb woody's and all of the good ways are almost never ridden, but thats a different story for a different day.










Flatlands is a dead end road. It is one lane, rough, covered in debris, and all in all a sketchy/terrifying/dangerous descent. At one point, it just sort of ends, and you turn around and begin a glorious climb back up to the big road.



Now I don't have a picture of the climb itself, so here I'll copy and paste some selections from the google search of 'flatlands rd.' none of which have anything to do with the climb:




1 comment: