Dahlonega’s 6 Gap Century/3 Gap Fifty Bicycle Ride and Criterium
The Dahlonega 6 Gap Century/ 3 Gap Fifty is held in Dahlonega on the third weekend of September every year. It generally bring about 3000 riders plus their friends and families. It is a great weekend to showcase the challenging and beautiful riding Dahlonega has to offer. 6 Gap has a reputation for being one of the most challenging rides in the southeastern US. The levels of participants vary each year. Some folks are interested in simply improving their previous year ride time while others actually race their competitors up each epic climb. Either way, a good time is had by all!
This year, the event sponsor, the Dahlonega Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center, added the 6 Gap Criterium Race to the weekend’s festivities. This was the first crit race Downtown Dahlonega has ever hosted. Since I live and ride in Dahlonega Lumpkin County, I was very eager to volunteer my time and assist with making it a successful weekend for riders, visitors, and our local businesses. As one my of first community volunteer activities, I was a little naive about what this commitment actually meant! All I have to say is, meetings, meetings, and more meetings! All of those meetings made me even more thankful to be making a living riding my bike in the outdoors! Throughout the process, community partnerships were at work. The committee worked closely with North Georgia College and State University to coordinate use of their property as well as with the City of Dahlonega about closing streets, trash pickup, recycling, etc. Even with the months of preparation, the real fun (or work) happened on the race weekend when we all of our efforts came together to make the event happen. Our team spent hours putting out barriers, cones, signs, and the works. It was so exciting to see downtown transform into a fast-paced, technical course!
