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Written by Vince
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Monday, 24 May 2010 14:39 |
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Picture this -- I'm sitting in the office with my wife. She tells me she's tired of riding the same roads in our area, that she's found a century in Napa and asks if I'm interested. Without looking into the details, I respond by saying: "Sure!" Until a few days ago, I didn't even know it was a race.
The Echelon Gran Fondo is a mass start 100 mile race which traverses the many roads of the Napa Valley and is part of the Echelon series which promises to "put on epic cycling events".
Unlike most centuries which start at the crack of dawn, the Gran Fondo had a mass start at 8:30AM which turned out to be closer to 9:00AM. Although I like to get started early, I appreciated being able to sleep in for another hour.
The start was chaos but expected with 1000 riders trying to get out of the small town of Napa. I managed to get free after the first few miles but the crowds were pretty thick until we started climbing.
The Napa Valley is a gorgeous place to spend a Sunday riding and it has a number of challenging hills but the most famous is "Ink Grade", a 4 mile climb which averages 10%. When I arrived at Ink Grade somewhere around the 55 mile mark, it was obvious by the numbers of riders littered all over the road that quite a few people had gone out too hard.
Feeling quite fresh, I zipped my way up to the top and was greeted by a half naked fellow dressed like Borat which I found to be equally amusing and troubling. Past Borat and the KOM banner was a huge party with a marching band and a large spread of food. But I was all business so I just refilled my bottles, hit the bathroom and jumped back on the bike. (NOTE: One day I would like to ride without a purpose.)
The next 20 miles were much easier than the first 60 and I finally felt like I wasn't climbing a hill or pushing into the wind. In fact, I was starting to smell the end. When a group of us arrived at the last aid station, we continued towards the finish until we realized we were heading in the wrong direction. And this seems like a good opportunity to bring up my only real gripe about this event. Through the entire ride, MANY of us found it quite difficult to determine the correct direction due to a poorly marked course.
Anyway. When the group arrived in Calistoga, we realized we'd gone in the wrong direction and had to backtrack the last 4 miles. Fortunately we had the wind at our back and those miles were fast. In fact the last 20 plus miles were fast because it was a straight shot back to Napa with a tailwind the entire way.
In the final few miles, I caught a group of riders who were still riding strong. We rode the remaining miles together and when we approached the finish, one jumped out front as if to bait us into a sprint finish. I was the only one who wanted to play so I started the chase. When I caught up to him, I almost went past him but then I remembered the sprint finishes in the Tour where guys who go out too early lose.
Rather than go past him, I stayed on his wheel until about 50 feet off the finish which is when I attacked and beat him by a nose. The announcer mentioned that an old La Vie Claire rider had just sprinted the finish to beat a Capo rider. The announcer continued talking about this for a minute and I was confused because we were the only two riders to come across the line. Someone later pointed out that he was talking about me since my DeSoto "Limited Edition" Jersey resembles that of a La Vie Claire rider. He must've thought I was in my 60's, no wonder he was impressed. ;)
It was a bonk-free day and I got what I came for... good numbers for CdA.
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