Shawn Bunnin's thoughts on the Gran Fondo. He will be a player 4 sure in the Bow 80
http://beefonabunnin.blogspot.com/What to do when faced with a 6:45am start 90km from home?
Simple – awake at 5am, drink 9 shots of stovetop espresso, hop in the car and drive like mad to arrive before the coffee “kicks in”.
Ride 140km in 4 hours, Have a sweet catered lunch/5 brownies and be ready to go home and have a nap by 1pm? I should do this more often!
Are GranFondo events the future of road cycling? Probably. Note I said Cycling, not Racing. “Races” seem like they are being succeeded by “Events” where participation takes priority over performance. The result is bigger numbers, and a participant base that would never be seen racing. The participation numbers are so large that the organizers can easily piggyback a race onto the event and afford to payout >$2500 for a race of only 35 riders!
My take is that this is a good thing – although the events are larger, more remote, and more expensive; they tend to be better organized and offer more exciting/varied courses. The course (and cash) are what drew me down to Nanton even though I hadn’t ridden a road bike in 2 months.
Highway 533 looks big from the driver’s seat. It lived up to the expectation of being selective on the hills (~4200ft of climbing) and before 70km the selection had been made and the rest of us were left looking at each other. I was happy with my climbing but two hours was also my longest ride of recent memory, so it seemed logical to let a few others do their Day Job – the hills were going to sort it out in the end anyways (and they did).
And so ends the racing summer of 2011 – Next stop “Bow ~80” and Cyclocross…
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