Six Gaps - Stuff of Legends

I stumbled upon a well written Six Gaps ride report on the Rapha blog. Some great photography there too. Rapha, the cycling apparel company, is building an epic rides library from around the world. Six Gaps was recently added. D2R2 will be added soon. It is great to have two rides from the northeastern USA make the cut.

The Rapha riders appeared to closely follow the route we follow each year that is shown on my website. They started in Middlebury however, while we start in Rochester. Their cue sheet gives over 141 miles for the ride, while we typically register around 132 miles. So I poked around a bit further. What is most interesting, the Rapha riders apparently used my PDF map during their ride, not the map given on the Rapha blog. The first photo of their ride report shows a map laying on the road. It matches my PDF, not the Rapha PDF. I'm guessing they want original content for their epic rides library and created their own map after the ride. I suppose only a details geek would notice something like this. Flattering, actually.

The Rapha report isn't the only new Six Gaps report to pop up recently. Check out Plum's recent post from his ride earlier this summer. Painful just reading it. You have to ask why we cyclists embark on such endeavors when we suffer so bad. The Rapha report used phrases and words like "right of passage" or "glory" in finishing a ride like this. That's true, I suppose, if you did it one time. But many riders keep going back. Not just Six Gaps, but also D2R2, the mother of all hurt fests around these parts.

I'll leave you with a couple more Iron Cross VI pics I lifted from Element of the Eye photography, the spiral of death and the Wigwam run-up. I've already put Iron Cross VII on my calender for next year.