It started innocently enough with a quick text from the gent’s ride co-leader Derek Jenkins “I am thinking of training for this ride” –the Leavenworth Gran Fondo. This ride, put on by Viscous Cycles out of Ephrata, Central Washington, is one of ten fondo- style rides they promote, and billed as one of the ‘Hardest Fondos in the Pacific Northwest’ - 150km’s, 3000M climbing of which 80km’s are on gravel forest service back roads. – On paper the three climbs did not look that bad – 7% average with short pitches of 10% - cool, I’m in!
Many discussions of appropriate bikes & gear ensued, Road, Mountain and CX bikes were all options for this ride as we would be covering everything from fast, smooth tarmac to virtual single track, and gravel tracks. I decided on my Ritchey Swiss Cross Disc with SRAM Force CX1 42 front & 11-32 cassette, the only change I made was on Derek’s recommendation and I swapped out my mud tires for the excellent Challenge Chicane gravel rubber.
The day started out with Derek and I lining up with 200 other riders with everything from slick, full on skinny tired road bikes to full suspension mountain bikes under partly cloudy, somewhat cool weather – great riding conditions. Numbers were pinned, water bottles filled and the usual nervous banter – we received our ride directions, ‘this ride is hard’, ‘if you don’t make the final check by 1pm you are on your own’, and the prerequisite ‘It’s not a race’, and off we set. A casual neutral lead out took us 10k to the base of the first climb, 18.8km’s, averaging 7% .- Both Derek and I had driven the hill and knew the final 4km was quite ‘pitchy’ with a few 10% ramps. The group started to separate as soon as we hit the gravel, 8k into the climb with 40 or so making the lead group – I stayed back in the ‘chase’ still finding my legs on the gravel road and starting to question my choice of gearing. As expected, we started picking up drops from the lead group, and by the summit had passed a dozen or so riders. Not being a strong descender, I started down fairly tentatively on the sloppy, loose gravel and was quickly overtaken by more confident riders – as we were to return over this climb later in the day, I glanced at the Garmin taking note of -16% grades, and again questioning my choice of gearing.
A quick break at the base of the climb with the excellent Wheelers/Jenkins SAG wagon providing mechanical & nutritional support. I set off alone to the base of the second climb, this was my kind of climb – 16km with only 4% average and a slight increase near the top – I got into a good rhythm and enjoyed the scenery for a bit. We had been warned that the second descent was ‘sketchy’ and it did not disappoint. – I had been joined at this point by Martin Farnham from Triple Shot Cycling and we started down the descent together, cautiously – the road had really turned into a ‘track’ completely rutted out, sharp rocks, uneven lines and our cautiousness started to pay off as we passed 15-20 of the lead group on the sides repairing flats, broken spokes and cracked rims – luckily this only lasted 4-5km and then back onto tarmac for the run south along the Columbia river.– I had not given much thought to this section as it consisted of 18km of nice, flat highway riding – however the Central Washington wind had other plans for us - with 45km/h gusts coming up the valley made making any kind of headway virtually impossible. Luckily a few of the lead riders who had been repairing flats caught up to Martin and I and we quickly had a small group of 7 that started a rotating pace line and although the wind knocked us about we were able to manage a fair pace to the mid-point feed station.
After stuffing ourselves with watermelon & Cokes, slathering on new sunscreen and cursing the wind, Martin & I set off with fellow Victorian Blair Phelps for a 17 km grueling slog up the Entiat Valley, battling the headwind and looking forward to (?) the final climb of the day. Checking in with the Jenkins SAG wagon, I off- loaded all my extra weight, all but one spare tire, one gel and two full H2O bottles and set off. On paper, this climb did not look to bad, 11.3 km, avg 7.1% for 805 m elevation on fairly good gravel, however there was a small 4 km section in the middle that averaged 10% with pitches up to 18% - our group quickly blew apart and as the 10%’er kicked in the carnage of the day was evident in the amount of ‘walkers’ on the road – at this point I was truly regretting my gear choice and started spinning out on some of the steepest pitches, watching the KM/h continue to drop & after a bad line choice, hitting some loose sand, I ended up walking for a couple hundred meters. Back on the bike, my final wind kicked in and the legs gave me the green light to kick the rest of the climb – passing many walkers and the slower mountain bikes I reached the summit for a 13th place for that hill. Knowing I had a small gap on some riders I chose to put on my big boy pants and hit the descent way past my comfort level – 18 km’s down washboard gravel with thankfully few hairpin turns, I managed to average 38 km/h and hold off all but the mountain bikes, one of which KOM’d the descent at over 51 km/h. From the bottom of the climb it was an undulating 10 km back to the line and with no one in sight behind & the legs starting to spasm – I blocked the pain, turned on the Phil Ligget internal head commentary and pushed hard to the finish coming in with 6:47 overall time for a respectable 35th place. Eric Bee for Bikehub/Smith pipped last year’s winner, Russell Stevenson by 3 minutes for a winning time of 5:44. Derek Jenkins dealt with flats and cramping along the route, but easily stole the ‘Clydesdale’ category coming in at 8:03 – Fellow Victorians Blair Phelps & Martin Farnham came in 45th & 47th respectively. Of the 200 starters only 170 had finished by the 10 hr cut off(…but, of course, it is not a race)
Overall, this was quite a hard day in the saddle, but as with any event of this magnitude the feeling of accomplishment far outweighs the aching legs and blurred vision. I can hardly wait to sign up for next year’s event!
Gran Fondo Leavenworth ~ ride report
Moderator:vicwheelers
Re: Gran Fondo Leavenworth ~ ride report
Great report Kyle. It was certainly a tough day out there on the bike. I think that I would sum up my ride by saying that the 10km climb from kilometer mark 110km to 120km took me almost 2 hours. 2 hours of walking/cramping/trying to ride, drinking 2 bottles of electrolytes, slamming 2 energy gels, eating everything I had in my pockets. Knowing that every step and every turn of the crank was getting me closer to the top of that last climb. Once I hit the top I bummed a gatorade off a motorcyclist and felt pretty good about what I had just accomplished as I rolled through the last 30km of the ride like a gut shot cowboy slouched over his horse on the way into town.
Re: Gran Fondo Leavenworth ~ ride report
Great work boys! Great inspiration to save for said cross bike
Kudos.
Kudos.
Re: Gran Fondo Leavenworth ~ ride report
So much awesome. Congrats guys. Sounds like an amazing event. Great report.
Cheers,
Trevor
Cheers,
Trevor
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Re: Gran Fondo Leavenworth ~ ride report
Great Report Kyle
The Tour de Bloom team can sympathize with you about then winds. You can't fully understand how devastating they can be until you are out there in it. Well done.
Cheers
E
The Tour de Bloom team can sympathize with you about then winds. You can't fully understand how devastating they can be until you are out there in it. Well done.
Cheers
E