Ride Report: Levi's Gran Fondo

**Warning: Long post! Please don't feel the need to read**

I'd been preparing for this event for the past 4 months. But I wasn't all that prepared. I didn't own knee or leg warmers and the temperature event day morning was supposed to be 55 - too cold to ride with knees uncovered. So the night before the event I stopped at REI and picked up some smart wool knee warmers that turned out to be too small for me. They may have looked silly, but they did the trick and I was so glad to have them. I thought I would take them off early, but I ended up wearing them my whole ride.

The Fondo features a mass start, so I lined up with my ride group in a sea of other riders around 7:30 in the morning. I was scared to death of the mass start - I was sure I didn't have the bike handling capabilities to handle it. In the end, it wasn't too bad. The race started at 8:00 and we finally started moving around 8:20 - slowly. We had one foot clipped in and were pushing forward with the free foot. I didn't actually get on my bike until just before crossing the start line, and by that time people were far enough apart that it was much less scary.

The ride was beautiful from the beginning, running through the rural roads of Santa Rosa. There were still far too many people until the course splits, especially climbing hills with Medio (65 mile) and Piccolo (35 mile) riders who seemed to be much slower and unsteady on the hills. The ride really became fun around mile 25 when we were only riding with the Gran group. Four of us had a mini paceline going through some lovely flats and rolling hills in the Redwoods.

After our first rest stop at 30 miles, we started to head up the famed King Ridge. It was tough, but nothing we hadn't seen before, and I was feeling good.I shortly ran into two teammates at the top of a ridge who told us we had completed the steep part already - it seemed so soon! Just as I was starting to feel great about the ride up there, it started raining. Amazing as it sounds, we had never trained in rain the entire season. First it was just sort of drizzling, but it began to get cold, and the fog shrouded the amazing views that I hear exist up on the ridgeline. What we could see was still beautiful though.

At the next rest stop, the set-backs started. We learned that one of our teammates who had crashed the week before was experiencing severe leg cramps. Another had a mechanical issue and a third had a flat tire. While we were waiting for the group the rain really started coming down and we started shaking, which is a scary thought when you know you have a descent ahead. Some of our group headed out early to get going, but we ran into them sooner than we thought. As another teammate and I were heading down the hill, very slowly because of the rain, a SAG vehicle coming up the hill told us to slow down. At that point, we couldn't imagine how we could go much more slowly. We soon figured it out. The road steepened and volunteers told us we would have to get off and walk soon because there was a bad wreck ahead. After we dismounted and walked around the corner, behind the ambulance and fire truck, we saw a sea of purple - our teammates. I couldn't imagine how we could be unlucky enough to have another crash.

It turned out that our teammate was only a minor casualty in the wreck. A rider had lost her brakes and taken out another person walking his bike. They ran into our teammate before falling into the ravine beside the road. I never went to look. The girl I was with was the ER doctor and after she identified herself they asked her to stay to help. Several other of our teammates had witnessed the crash. They were very shaken up and had to stay to give witness statements to the police. Our injured teammate also wanted to keep riding but couldn't move his leg in a full circle. Finally the decision was made to proceed on with the part of our team that was able to leave.

As we proceeded, I was freezing, with legs shaking, and all I could think about was how miserable the ride was. Why would anyone want to ride in the rain? It was cold and scary. After reaching the lunch stop at around mile 57 at the top of the Ridge, we huddled in the tent with the food to try to get warm. We were already running behind schedule in our bid to finish in front of the 6 pm course sweep. We were trying to figure out how to get in touch with other members of our team when they started rolling in to our stop. The teammate with the leg cramps decided to call it a day and get SAGged out, but the teammate in the crash had been cleared to proceed and was planning to finish while gritting his teeth. The only person left behind was the ER doctor who had stayed to help.

At this point we also had been told that there was another treacherous descent ahead (19% grade with low visibility), which had everyone scared because of the wreck, but we were told it was too long to walk. One girl we had run into at the crash told us she was going to SAG out because she was too scared to continue. She just wanted to go home to DC. I felt better about it because the road was a bit more dry, and I knew I wanted to finish the race.

We finally headed out and were soon heading down a large hill. The roads were dry and the road was not as curvy as the previous descent. I set off and was shortly rewarded by the most amazing view of the Sonoma Coast. I recall swearing out loud about how gorgeous it was. I managed to enjoy the descent although I was going faster than I would have liked - I think somehow with the beauty I was enjoying it too much to be scared. This was the first time I realized I was on what one of my teammates described as an emotional rollercoaster: awesome! terrible! awesome! terrible!

I was shortly dumped out onto Highway One and continued to enjoy the gorgeous coast. I got a short pull from one of the support staff but otherwise cruised down the next several miles to the last rest stop before the next big hill by myself. At that point we knew we were in trouble with regard to the time sweep. We had less than 3 hours to go and at least 30 miles including one gigantic hill. But it took awhile to collect everyone at the rest stop. People rolled in slowly. We learned that one of our coaches had crashed early on in the race and as he was behind us we never found out and therefore had left him. One of the girls who had witnessed the crash was having extreme fears about going down the last descent and had remained behind with staff. We decided we had to press forward minus a few people.

And with that the ascent up the crazily steep Coleman Valley began. It started badly as because of the rain our cleats were caked with mud and several people were having trouble getting clipped in. And folks, you can't go up Coleman Valley without being clipped in. I plowed on forward and started passing a few people walking their bikes up the hill, although not much more slowly than I was riding. In fact once they got back on their bikes they proceeded to go much more quickly than me, so perhaps they had made a good choice. Near the top of an insanely steep incline, a photographer was taking pictures and it was all I could do not to swear at him. Once up on the ridge I was able to calm down and enjoy some fairly un-foggy views of the coast and hills.

I stopped at the water-only SAG stop to wait for the rest of my team who came straggling in one by one. We were still missing a few people who had in effect been left behind. However, we were at mile 80 at 5:00 pm, and we knew that with 23 miles left to go we weren't going to make the sweep. We set off and headed down the hill, which was less extreme than the other descents. We finally made it to the very last rest stop before the "flats" where we waited for a couple other teammates so that we could paceline to the finish. The teammate who had crashed was struggling and needed a boost, and some other people were glad for the help as well.

I was feeling pretty good as soon as the massive hills were over, so I tried to help by pulling the group but was getting continually yelled at for going too fast. In addition, the course was hillier than we had thought, and it is difficult to paceline up and down hills safely. We finally got onto some flat rural roads, and with the sun setting and the sky clear, the fields full of cows (and in one case miniature donkeys!) it was a beautiful sight - part of the "amazing" portion of the roller coaster.

Much to our excitement, we were not picked up by a sweep van, and there were still cops out at the intersections stopping traffic for us. We finally entered town and rolled through the finish line as it was being broken down, timing pad already removed, around 7 pm - 11 hours after the race had officially started! There were many people still around to cheer us on, including Matt, of course! After hugs all around, seeing some of the people who had been left behind or SAGged out, and the arrival of our coach with the last participants, all I could think about was food.

I have never ridden a century before, so I am unclear if all are such emotional roller coasters. This one was especially challenging, not only because of the massive hills, but because of all the setbacks - medical problems, mechanical problems, crashes and their after-effects, etc. I'm sure I could have finished faster had I been riding by myself, but the team camaraderie and support truly was amazing, and I am truly thankful to have been a part of the experience.

I'm not sure what my future holds in regards to biking. After all the crashes I was beginning to think that perhaps it was not the sport for me. But seeing those people already returning to their bikes, and experiencing the Gran made me reconsider. Maybe there will be more biking in my future. We shall see. For now, I will just try to remember bits and pieces of this crazy day. As my head coach said at send-off, in jest, "I'm not riding the Gran with you because you have to be f***ing crazy to do that." What an adventure.