Giro di GranFondo

This year was the second edition of the Vancouver GranFondo, 122 km ride from Vancouver yo Whistler. I would be joined by 7000 of my friends for this ride. The Giro division I was in was the race field, open to Cat 1,2,3 riders, with money prizes and bragging rights. I didn't have any illusions of grandeur racing the Fondo, I was hoping to survive with the "boys". We were greeted with a pleasant morning, warm and what promised to be a beautiful day. Women field started at 6:40, men's at 6:50 and the rest of the riders at 7. It was a control start, meaning that the race would not start until wr reached the first hill, Taylor way. We were greeted by a breath taking view of the sun rising while having the lion's gate bridge to ourselves. Sadly, it would be the last time I would enjoy the scenery. As we made our way up the hill, the front pack was already breaking off. I ended up in the second smaller pack of about 8 riders. We would work together as drafting is much easier in a group. After about 15 min of riding together, we were like a well oiled machine, working a line like we were at the Tour de France. At that time, life was good and it made me recall how enjoyable riding can be, even with a group of strangers who have a common goal. 35 km into the race, disaster struck, as I'm changing gear for a hill, my chain derail, I'm thinking, that's it, I'm done I won't be able to catch up to these guys on my own. In true sportman like fashion and riding etiquettes, the boys waited for me to fix it and catch up. They could have decided to go, but bike riding is like that, if you have been doing your share in the line, they'll wait for you. Greatful I caught up and continued. We would encounter lone soles, a few men and women that had been spun out of their pack. We encourage them to join our line as riding alone is hard. The first part of the course until Squamish doesn't have much climbing and we made great time as we caught the women field. We passed them and forged on until one of the hill, where they caught us and pass. For some reasons the race referee decided to neutralize us, meaning we could not pass them. Unsure why, we seemed to be doing the very same thing at the same time, we all reached in our back pocket and started eating. After about 10 min, the ref decided to
let us pass and we were off again, these boys were dropping the hammer and this last part is
all uphill. Now you have to understand, I weight more than your average road rider, by 10 to 40 lbs. Hills tend to hurt after a while. Approaching Whistler, we were hit with a strong head wind. With about 15 km to go the inevitable happened, I got left behind climbing a hill. I just couldn't hang on anymore, ad I saw these guys forging on, I knew it was going to be a lonely 15 km. I would finish the race in 3:45 and was desapointed as it was 9 min slower than last year. I also wish I could have stuck with my group to the finish, they were a good munch of guys. No racing for me next weekend, I think I need a mental and physical break. I plan of doing a short trail running race in 2 weeks at buntzen lake, it will be a good prep for the World championship in October. I also plan a few cycle cross races to complement the training. Stay tuned for more updates, I'll post the fondo ranking when's it's up. Happy trails!

Carpe Diem